Efforts to address long-standing problems in Belarusian agriculture explained

During a conference call hosted by Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko on 21 July to discuss the harvesting campaign Belarusian Agriculture and Food Minister Igor Brylo made a report on how long-standing problems in the country's agribusiness are being addressed, BelTA has learned.

According to Igor Brylo, about 7,500 harvesters will be used in the course of the harvesting campaign. The overall readiness of the vehicles stands at 99%, however, the figure varies from region to region. For instance, it stands at 98% in Vitebsk Oblast although it was 81% a year ago as of the same reporting date. “In other words, we have done better in comparison with last year,” the agriculture and food minister said. He stressed that as far as the availability of machines and vehicles in agricultural enterprises is concerned, there is positive dynamics and the situation gets better year after year. “As many as 405 harvesters were bought last year and there are plans to buy 800 over the course of the year this year,” the official said.

In addition to deliveries of new vehicles and machines repair and refurbishment of old ones have been increased considerably upon the president's instructions. As many as 215 grain harvesters, 188 forage harvesters, and over 800 tractors have been repaired and restored with assistance of the Industry Ministry.

Speaking about concerns with regard to the possible failure to hit the forage harvesting target, Igor Brylo assured that everything will be done to prevent it. The current weather gives reasons to hope for the good second cutting of grass forage.

Speaking about the harvesting of cereals this year, the minister remarked that they expect to gather in 1 million tonnes less than the target. But it is not critical for the country, because there is about 1 million tonnes in rollover leftovers in storage facilities, he said.

The agriculture and food minister also mentioned positive trends in dealing with the problem of the loss of cattle. In his words, the level of unproductive loss of cattle dropped by 21,000 this year in comparison with the same period of last year.

“For this harvesting campaign we've prepared at least as well as we did last year. I think we've made even better preparations in some aspects,” the agriculture and food minister summarized.