August 23, 2011

Belarus nearly completes harvest

If it were not for the presence of rainy weather over the weekend, most of the regions in Belarus would have finished their harvest works.

Currently, Brest Oblast has harvested 98.5% of the area under grains, Grodno Oblast harvested 96.9%, Mogilev Oblast harvested 96%, Minsk Oblast harvested 94%, Gomel Oblast harvested 93% and Vitebsk Oblast harvested 87.7%.

The gross grain harvest of the country reached 7.39 million tonnes, with Minsk Oblast accounting for 1.9 million tonnes. Agricultural companies in Grodno Oblast harvested 1.38 million tonnes of grain. Farms harvested 1.18 million tonnes of grain in Vitebsk Oblast and 1.07 million tonnes in Mogilev Oblast. Brest Oblast showed a harvest of 1.03 million tonnes of grain. Gomel Oblast harvested 836,700 tonnes. All the oblasts, except Brest Oblast, surpassed last year's grain production.

Agricultural companies in Grodno Oblast led in this year's crop yield at 42.9 centners per hectare. Minsk Oblast showed the crop capacity of 36.6 centners per hectare. The cropping power was 36.5 centners per hectare in Mogilev Oblast and 32.4 centners per hectare in Brest Oblast. The lowest yield due to hot weather was registered in Gomel Oblast at 28.6 centners per hectare. The average yield in the country totaled 34.7 centners per hectare, up five centners per hectare on 2010.

Belarusian farmers have started to thresh buckwheat and millet. They have already cropped 2,400 hectares of buckwheat. Farmers harvested 4,100 tonnes of buckwheat with the average yield of 17.2 centners per hectare. Millet has been harvested on 2,500 hectares, or 23.2% of the area. The average yield is 23.2 centners per hectare.

The harvest of corn for silage amounted to 546,600 tonnes, with the average yield of 285.6 centners per hectare.

Some 1.6 million hectares under straw have been cropped, reaching 74.6% of the total.

Flax harvesting is close to its end.