Mass sowing campaign begins on Don

Despite difficult weather conditions, the Don agrarians have already sown more than 26,000 hectares.
Agrarians of the southern and Azov agro-climatic zones, as well as several other regions, resumed work on sowing spring crops.
“In the Rostov region today, active spring field work is underway and there are sufficient food supplies and prerequisites for a decent harvest,” said Viktor Goncharov, first deputy governor of the Don region, yesterday. – Let me remind you that in general, more than 2.9 million hectares were sown for the harvest of 2022 in the region than last year. Already sprouted - 99.8% of crops. Almost throughout the region, farmers feed winter crops with mineral fertilizers. To date, more than 2 million hectares have been fed, which is about 70% of the total area sown with winter grains. In addition, the sowing of spring crops has already started in the Rostov region. But this year, in the entire south of Russia, frosty weather in mid-March did not allow an active sowing campaign. Therefore, the farmers had to stop. Now, as soon as the temperature indicators reach the desired indicators, farmers resume sowing spring crops. Today, we are just here in the Zernograd district, where farmers started sowing leguminous crops yesterday.”
According to the Don Ministry of Agriculture and Food, today in the region, mainly in the southern agro-climatic zone, more than 26 thousand hectares have already been sown - 1.5% of the spring sowing plan.
In general, Don agrarians will have to sow more than 1.8 million hectares of spring crops this spring, including almost 700 thousand hectares of grain and leguminous crops. More than 95% of the seeds of spring crops have already been harvested. Also, according to information from the districts, almost 83% of the need for mineral fertilizers has been procured for spring field work. Diesel fuel and gasoline are available at the oil depots of the region in sufficient quantities.
In addition, the mechanism of preferential short-term lending to farmers also contributes to the spring field work. Last week, more than 888 million rubles were additionally allocated to the Rostov region for preferential short-term lending. Thus, the total limit amounted to more than 1.3 billion rubles. Agricultural producers can take a short-term or investment loan at a rate of up to 5%. The additional limit will make it possible to attract 6 billion rubles of preferential short-term loans.
Also in early March, the government of the Russian Federation adopted a resolution providing for the prolongation of short-term loans for 1 year.