April 10, 2008

Russia reports slow pace of spring grain planting
 

Russia planted spring grains on 1.8 million hectares to April 7, compared with 2.7 million hectares on April 9, 2007, the agriculture ministry reported Wednesday.

The area planted to date is 5.7 percent of the planned total area, while on April 9, 2007 spring grains had been planted on 8.7 percent of the total planned area.

The slow pace of planting is due to adverse weather conditions. The ministry said the weather improved last week enabling farmers to speed up planting but it was still below last year's pace.

Agriculture minister Alexey Gordeyev said earlier Russia planned to harvest 85 million tonnes of grain this year, 3 million tonnes more than in 2007.

Gordeyev said the 300,000 hectares of land that was not used for growing grain would be reclaimed this year, and that this together with the use of new technology and mineral fertilizers would help increase the grain harvest.