Lukashenko: I feel how the country is groaning, the tension is terrible in a good sense of this word
During his working trip to the Grodno Region, the President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, noted the tension with which the current harvesting campaign is taking place in the country, BelTA reports
“I feel how the country is groaning during this harvesting campaign. Such a terrible tension. I feel it. In a good sense of the word, the tension is terrible,” the Head of State said.
According to the President, the tension is caused by the task of harvesting the grain crop – which is expected to be high this year – with the highest quality. Field works are hampered in places by crop lodging.
“I see how they are groaning around Minsk. The lodging is terrible there,” Aleksandr Lukashenko noted. “Different harvesters are working on 50 hectares for two days. But what can be done ... Grain is good where crops lie.”
The President drew attention to the issue of providing grain and fodder for livestock to large farms that do not have enough of their own land for this. It would be possible to purchase it abroad, but this is a waste of additional funds, and therefore the issue is resolved through a different approach.
Among such farms is Aleksandriyskoe JSC, supervised by the President Property Management Directorate. Aleksandr Lukashenko gave an example of how Valery Ivanov, being the head of the Property Management Directorate, solved the above-mentioned problem, “He established a unit at this farm, bought equipment and took abandoned land in other districts: 6,000 hectares. This year, they are producing corn grain.”
A similar path was taken at the Dzerzhinsky agricultural complex. “They took 60 percent of the Krupki District. There was a poultry farm [land near Minsk, which belonged to the poultry farm] and they took that land. They don’t have enough grain. They came and asked to give them land,” the Belarusian leader said.
The President said that he agreed to the transfer of the land, but only together with the social burden that concerns the villages and rural dwellers in these territories.
“They took everything,” Aleksandr Lukashenko noted.
By the way, the yield was 60 centners per hectare on the lands in the Krupki District this year, and it was much less previously.
“Technology has its role to play. A powerful company has arrived,” the Head of State stated.
In general, this year, a total record grain harvest of about 11 million tonnes is expected, including more than 8 million tonnes of cereal grains, about 800 thousand tonnes of rapeseed and 2 million tonnes of corn grain.
