Belarusian agricultural companies start harvesting winter rape

Belarusian agricultural companies have started harvesting winter rape, BelTA learnt in the Ministry of Agriculture and Foodstuffs. According to specialists, the first 5.5 thousand hectares of rape, or 3.7% of the total area under the crop has been mowed which is 168 thousand hectares, or 2.3 times up as against last year. The total area under rape and spring crops is 218 thousand hectares. So, agricultural companies are expected to harvest about 200 thousand tonnes of rape. Farms of the Vitebsk oblast have mowed more than 22% of the winter rape crops, the Brest oblast – 3.4%, the Gomel oblast – about 4% of the area under winter rape crops. Farms of the Minsk and Mogilev oblasts have just started to harvest the winter rape. Agricultural companies of the Grodno oblast will start harvesting the rape soon. Around 5.7 thousand tonnes of rapeseed has been milled. The Vitebsk oblast accounted for more than a half of the amount – 3.2 thousand tonnes. The average crop capacity in the country makes up 10.7 centners per hectare. According to specialists of the Ministry of Agriculture and Foodstuffs, in Belarus the rape is used for production of rapeseed oil and also forage. Moreover, the rape is used for biofuel production. Belarus intends to construct several plants to produce biofuel from rape.