Republic
02.08.2006
Agricultural producers of Belarus are about to crop the second millionth ton of grain, deputy minister of agriculture and foodstuffs Vasiliy Pavlovskiy told BelTA. According to him, gross harvest is 1 million 796 thousand tons of grain, or 549 thousand tons more from August 2 last year.
He noted that having harvested 502 thousand tons of grain, Minsk oblast is a leader in gross harvest. Grodno oblast has cropped 420,6 thousand tons, Brest – 418 thousand tons, Gomel oblast - about 246 thousand tons. The northern regions are also gathering pace: Mogilev oblast harvested more than 241 thousand tons, Vitebsk – 83 thousand tons. In opinion of the deputy minister, all oblasts apart from Gomel are getting more harvest as against last year’s figures.
On the whole, the country has harvested 625 thousand hectares under grain crops, or 27.8 per cent of the total area under crops. This is 10 per cent more than last year. Brest oblast cropped over 50 per cent of the areas, Grodno – 36 per cent, Gomel – 29.4, Minsk – 28 per cent, Mogilev and Vitebsk oblasts – 13.3 and 9.5 respectively.
The average yield exceeds 36cwt/ha in Grodno oblast, about 32cwt/ha in Minsk and Vitebsk oblasts, more than 30.3cwt/ha – in Mogilev. Due to the heatwave, the yield in Brest and Gomel oblasts is lower – about 25cwt/ha.
Vasiliy Pavlovskiy informed that agricultural producers have been granted the community loan at the value of USD 30 million to buy diesel fuel. This move will help speed up the field works and finish the winter rape harvesting this week.
The farmers will soon get down to sowing of winter rape. The optimal terms – from August 1 to 15.
On the eve of the nation-wide conference on harvesting issues, the deputy minister singled out most urgent problems. Thus, the farmers need to purchase glyphosate fertilizers to clear the fields from perennial weeds. It is high time these fertilizers were applied. About USD 30 million is needed for these purposes.
The farmers also hope to increase the grain yield by means of timely application of mineral fertilizers. About USD 18 million is needed to purchase phosphoric fertilizers. Thus, the government support for the autumn sowing campaign is estimated at USD 48 million, the deputy minister stated.