June 15, 2012
Hail hits 32,000 hectares of Russian region
On June 8, hail destroyed about 32,000 hectares (79,074 acres) of fields and gardens in Russia's southern Stavropol region, the country's top 2 crop producer for 2011, the local agriculture ministry reported.
The damaged area included 300 hectares of gardens in one district, while the rest was mostly fields of grain and other plantings, according to a statement on the ministry's website. Plantings were destroyed totally on more than 3,200 hectares, the ministry said.
Stavropol accounted for 8.7% of Russia's total grain crops in 2011 after farmers there harvested 8.2 million tonnes of cereals, according to state statistics data. Krasnodar was the biggest-producing region.
