Government to subsidize half of Belarusian Polesie melioration
TUROV, 2 September (BelTA) – The national budget will subsidize 50% of the melioration of Belarusian Polesie. The statement was made by President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko as he visited the Zhitkovichi region during his working trip to the Gomel oblast.
The melioration of farmland in the Gomel oblast is supposed to get Br100 billion, including Br50 billion the national budget will allocate.
“You are responsible for the price of every meliorated hectare with your head,” the President told Gomel Oblast Governor Alexander Yakobson. “I have bitter experience of the construction industry. I remember them moaning and begging for work. We have given them work and what have we got? They work from three to five hours a day and do nothing after that. We have a market-oriented economy here!” The head of state discouraged meliorators from following this example.
“Control will be tough,” warned Alexander Lukashenko. “It is necessary to clearly determine that, for instance, meliorating this piece of land will cost so and so and you won’t get more. It is necessary to know the price of every canal, every drainage pipe and so on,” added the head of state.
Melioration cannot be delayed because the cost is doubled every year, stressed the President. “The next year is a year for everyone to get started on the melioration programme. For the first year of the future five-year plan we should reach annual maximum melioration volumes, let’s say, 25,000 hectares. Within the next five-year plan we should fully restore meliorated lands without forgetting those lands that are fit today,” said the President of Belarus.
Melioration is especially topical in view of the growing demand for agricultural products on the international market. “The demand will continue growing tremendously. We should be in this market niche so that we could profitably sell our products and earn good money. Thus, we will be able to return the investments we’ve put into the rural revival programme,” remarked the President.
