Republic

Gross grain yield in Belarus approaches 8mn tonnes

As of August 20, 2008 the gross grain harvest in Belarus made up 7,915.000 tonnes and is already 900,000 tonnes higher than Belarus’ record high harvest of 2004, BelTA was told in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. Belarus’ record high harvest in 2004 was 7 million tonnes of grain. Considering last year’s harvest of 6,899.000 tonnes this year’s harvest is already 1 million tonnes higher. Today, on August 20, Belarus will pass the mark of 8 million tonnes. Virtually all oblasts have beaten last year’s results. The highest harvest is in the Minsk oblast: 2,020.700 tonnes. The Grodno oblast has cropped 1,557.000 tonnes. The oblast also has the highest yield which is 49.9 centners per hectare.The Brest oblast has harvested 1,239.000 tonnes, Gomel 1,036.600 tonnes.The Mogilev oblast has cropped 1,151.400 tonnes; the Vitebsk oblast is approaching its 1 million tonnes. By and large, Belarus has cropped 2.058.000 hectares, or 90% of the total cropping area. Some 4.9% and 3% of the cropping area are left to be harvested in the Brest and Gomel oblast, 8.4% in the Grodno oblast, 11.3% in Minsk, 10.5% in Mogilev, around 20% in the Vitebsk oblast. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, apart from the northern regions of the Vitebsk oblast the harvest campaign will be completed in Belarus by the end of the week if it does not start raining.