Tatarstan Ministry of Agriculture: as many as 79 per cent of grain crops have been harvested in the republic

On 6 September, speaking at a regional meeting held by Tatarstan Prime Minister Aleksey Pesoshin in the Government House of the republic, the regional Minister of Agriculture and Food Marat Zyabbarov reported about the harvest campaign progress, work of grain drying complexes and forage conservation.

He stated that despite rains harvest work is going on with 971 thousand hectares or 79 per cent of the area already harvested and 3m 827 thousand tonnes of grain threshed.

He also informed about harvest of spring and winter canola, potatoes and sugar beet and said that the main problem of the current harvest campaign is high grain moisture which substantially increases the load on grain-yards and grain drying equipment. “Weather conditions during the harvest this year once again proved the necessity for modernization of grain drying equipment as this gives an opportunity to decrease yield losses up to 15-20 per cent,” he said.

Speaking about sugar beet harvest, Marat Zyabbarov said that two sugar plants of the republic have already processed 52 thousand out of 89 thousand tonnes of harvested beet.

He also informed about winter crops sowing and forage conservation, saying that agricultural enterprises and farms have conserved 441 thousand tonnes of hay and 2m 938 thousand tonnes of haylage.

The regional Minister also reported that private farmsteads have conserved 523 thousand tonnes of hay which is 115% of the demand and silage conservation has begun in 19 regions of the republic.