Farmers in Belarus are completing the harvesting campaign of winter rapeseed. Thus, as of August 9, the gross harvest of this crop reached 899.1 thousand tons, it was threshed from an area of 318.2 thousand hectares (96.6% of the plan). The average yield in the country is 28.3 c/ha. This was reported to BelTA by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of Belarus.
In addition, by the reporting date, local farmers have already harvested about 3.337 million tons of grain and leguminous crops (without corn, buckwheat, millet). Harvesting was held on the area of 984.4 thousand hectares (51.4% of the plan) by the end of the first decade of August. The yield is 33.9 c/ha.
“Good income from barley and rape”
Earlier, President Alexander Lukashenko positively assessed the prospects of rapeseed production in the country: “This is a good income crop one should be dealing with. Both winter barley and rape, especially winter rape, require strict adherence to technology. Even with a yield of 35 c/ha winter rape gives a very good income. The Chinese are asking to increase supplies of rapeseed oil to them. And Europeans, no matter what the sanctions may be, will gladly take this oil from you. And we need to slowly accustom our population to rapeseed oil,” said the head of state.
On the eve of appointing a new head of the Agriculture Ministry, Lukashenko noted that food security would be fully ensured in the country this year.
“I see that in terms of food security of our people – we will be provided with everything necessary. We will procure a little less than a million tons of cereals for state needs. We will procure the right amount of rapeseed. We are already seeing this. Everything is going well here. If we organize ourselves properly, we won’t have any problems with fodder grain for animals,” stressed the Belarusian leader.