September 3, 2012

Kazakhstan harvests 44.1% of total grain acreage

With the average yield of 0.74 tonnes a hectare, Kazakhstan harvested 5.051 million tonnes of grain as of August 31 on 6.834 million hectares, or 44.1% of the total area to be harvested.

The agriculture ministry said that in the year-earlier period Kazakhstan harvested 2.8 million tonnes of grain on 2.029 million hectares, or 12.6% of the total area to be harvested, with the average yield of 1.38 tonnes a hectare.

Harvesting in Kazakhstan this year began earlier than usual because of hot weather, but yields are lower as the crops are negatively affected by the drought.

The ministry said July 23 Kazakhstan's grain harvest this year was likely to be 12.8 million tonnes, compared with nearly 29.7 million tonnes in 2011. The ministry said the current drought resulted in the expected average yield to fall to 0.87 tonnes a hectare from 1.85 tonnes a hectare in 2011.