July 18, 2012

Drought destroys Russian grain

The Agriculture Ministry of Russia said in a statement on Tuesday (July 17) that drought in the south of Russia has killed grain on 1.5 hectares or 3.4% of the sown area.

The Saratov, Volgograd, Stavropol, Rostov regions and the republic of Kalmykia plan to declare a state of emergency because of the drought.

The Agriculture Ministry said that harvesting operations in the two largest grain producing zones, the Krasnodar and Stavropol regions, is nearing completion. The Krasnodar Region has harvested 4.4 million tonnes of grain from 79% of the sown area and the Stavropol Region has accumulated three million tonnes of grain from 71% of the fields.

The Agriculture Ministry, which has reduced its crop harvest to 85 million tonnes from 94 million tonnes, is considering grain interventions in the most damaged regions.

In 2010, almost a third of the country's crops were damaged by a drought forcing the government to introduce an embargo on grain exports. First Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said earlier that there are no plans to impose the measure in 2012.