What kind of miracle barley that Lukashenka spoke about? Opinion of experts and practitioners

June 20, Shklovsky district. Winter barley - this agricultural crop with the light hand of the HEAD of state ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO, who visited the experimental field in his small homeland in the Shklovsky district, was at the center of the information agenda. Experts, heads of the government and regions started talking about it. You see, if this continues, then in a few years this culture will make a quiet revolution in the agro-industrial complex of the country. What are the advantages of winter barley and why it has become so important for Belarus - in the material of BELTA.

Summer in Belarus flies by very quickly, not only for people who barely have time to bask in the sun and swim, but also for plants. The period for the growing season, or, more simply, to grow and mature, is very short. And if the weather doesn’t work out, it rains, or vice versa, a drought overtakes, then the harvest will generally be in jeopardy. And, by the way, the grocery basket of each of us depends on it. After all, cereals are important for the procurement of high-quality animal feed, and the availability of delicious MILK, cottage cheese, cheeses, sausages and other things in stores depends on this.

In connection with changing conditions, including climate change, which, of course, affects Belarus as well, it is necessary to change approaches in agriculture, to think about what and when it is more profitable to grow. Given the importance of the issue and its comprehensive nature, one way or another affecting every inhabitant of the country, the head of state spoke on this topic more than once. Last year, at one of the meetings, the President gave instructions to change the structure of crops with an emphasis on winter barley.

The advantages of this crop are obvious: the average yield is 50 centners/ha compared to 33-35 centners/ha for other cereals. “If we had a yield of 50 centners on all crops (we are talking about grains. - approx. BELTA), we would not need anything at all. We don’t need oil and natural gas (we are talking about the ability to meet the needs of the national economy at a high level ). economy, even without rich natural resources. - Note by BelTA. And we can have it. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the sowing of winter barley. Because by this time, by today (the meeting was held at the end of July. - Note by BelTA), when we get involved in mass grain harvesting, winter barley has already ripened, and we have already harvested it. If there is more winter barley at 5 centners per hectare of yield, we will be in chocolate," he lucidly explainedAlexander Lukashenko . At the same time, the President instructed to conduct an appropriate experiment in his small homeland in the Shklovsky district.

No sooner said than done. Today, the head of state visited this region on a working trip and assessed the progress of the experiment. In his opinion, today is a historic and turning point in agriculture. The President noted that he grew up in these places, at the junction of the Mogilev and Vitebsk regions, and here he will test various new approaches in agriculture. "So the President's field has become. Today is a historic moment. If someone thinks that we met here in order to once again talk and show off, experts will understand that this is not so," he said.

Journalists turned to experts for clarification on why winter barley is so important and valuable and how it survives in our difficult conditions of risky farming.

It turns out that resistance to changeable weather conditions was instilled in barley by Belarusian scientists. As Alexander Zubkovich, head of the barley laboratory of the Scientific and Practical Center for Agriculture of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, said, specialists were working on creating a barley variety "with increased winter hardiness." "Producers are always concerned about the issue of overwintering - this is the bottleneck of barley," the representative of the National Academy of Sciences explained.

One of the most resistant to cold was the Belarusian variety of barley "buslik". He was ahead of even the latest Western European varieties in this. According to the decision of experts, it is allowed to grow throughout the country, even in its northernmost region - the Vitebsk region, and is also included in the State Register of Varieties. This year the "buslik" is being tested in RUSSIA. And Belarusian scientists continue to work to make this variety also the most productive and disease resistant.

And, of course, among the four varieties of winter barley planted on the experimental field, there is also "buslik".

Deputy Prime Minister Leonid Zayats, who has been involved in various positions in the agricultural sector for many years, told reporters that last year the country relied on sowing winter grains - they occupied 67% in the structure of grain crops: "We see that today there are 115,000 more winter crops (sown on the area. - BELTA's note) than in 2021. The agrotechnical work carried out allows us to conclude that they were not mistaken."

He confirmed that, based on the practice of previous years, winter crops are always more productive than spring crops: “Therefore, we expanded, gradually moved towards giving an advantage to the winter wedge. Last year we managed to do this in the republic. We remember the very difficult autumn of 2021 , but at the same time, the citizens, the government and the President helped to sow more, knowing that it would pay off when harvesting a new crop."

Good results are also visible on the field in the Shklovsky district, where the experiment took place. Here, on an area of ​​120 hectares, four varieties of winter barley were sown - Belarusian and Western hybrids. "The whole range of care agrotechnical work was carried out in the fall. In the spring, they were fertilized with nitrogen fertilizers. All agrotechnical work was carried out equally on the entire field," the Deputy Prime Minister noted. Now, according to him, it is impossible to determine which variety turned out to be better, all the plants are healthy, there are no spots, diseases anywhere, the ear is protected, grain is accumulating: “We will clean, weigh and see which is better. of our variety, almost the same - 800 stems, in some places 1.2 thousand per square meter.

Positively characterizing winter barley, Leonid Zayats listed its advantages: ripening before the start of mass harvesting of spring grains, in early July, the opportunity to test equipment, run in drying complexes. In addition, barley is indispensable for forage feeding in animal husbandry. "Therefore, we will move away from crops that are less valuable - oats, rye, triticale. We will give preference to winter barley, especially since the climate has changed, winters have become warmer, it is easier for cultivated plants to survive the winter. We must develop domestic seed production. Scientists are working on barley so that it has an advantage over other grains, - said Leonid Zayats. - Therefore, it is necessary that business executives get ready, understand that this crop will pay back the costs of growing it."

Chairman of the Mogilev Regional Executive Committee Anatoly Isachenko, speaking about the prospects of winter barley, confirms this with figures: in the region, the crops of this crop have been increased from 500 hectares to about 5.5 thousand hectares. "The crop is good both in terms of protein content and yield (at least 50 centners per hectare)," he noted. "Winter barley is a promising crop that will yield grain, precocity, and protein content."

As the head of the region explained, the region decided in principle to focus on winter crops, not only on barley. This is seen as a significant benefit. It is enough to compare two figures: in the structure of the sown areas of the Mogilev region, winter crops occupy 56%, and in the gross grain harvest, these crops account for 65-70%. "This suggests that these crops are more stable and give better results," Anatoly Isachenko added.

He also drew attention to winter rapeseed, which, along with barley, was planted on an experimental field in the Shklovsky district: "We are testing various varieties and approaches. There is a result. The yield here will be decent, definitely not less than 30 centners per hectare."

“In the region, we are increasing the area under winter rapeseed, because this crop provides not only a derivative for livestock products, but rapeseed oil is also in demand today, there is a production facility for its processing into edible rapeseed oil. We sell it both domestically and abroad. The demand is huge. Therefore, culture needs to be developed," the governor added.

According to him, the issue of preparing high-quality feed with a high protein content is now very relevant for animal husbandry. And for this we need to grow more crops such as rapeseed, sunflower, peas, lupins, soybeans. “We see the need and understand how to solve it. Of course, this takes time,” said Anatoly Isachenko, and cited the practice of corn cultivation as an example. we are completely engaged in corn for grain. And a good harvest - 100 centners per hectare. We are also increasing the crops harvested for grain."

In the northernmost region of Belarus - the Vitebsk region - they really hope that the winter rapeseed sown last year will give a significant increase in the grain harvest in 2022.

"It's a thankless job to make forecasts for the harvest - there are a lot of variables in this equation, a lot of conventions. We, of course, want to increase compared to last year, reach at least a million tons of grain and prepare a one and a half year supply of fodder," the chairman of the Vitebsk Regional of the executive committee Alexander Subbotin. - We will add due to the fact that we were able to accumulate and almost twice as much fertilizer. This year, we put more emphasis on the manufacturability of all processes - here is the reserve that will allow you to get a larger harvest. Plus, we focused on sowing 40 thousand hectares more winter crops, which are more productive, crops were painted according to the scheme so that the load on the combine would be more uniform.”

Alexander Subbotin considers the experience of colleagues from the Mogilev region in cultivating crops on the experimental field interesting and useful for everyone: "What varieties, hybrids, sowing dates, approaches to processing - we peep these approaches, copy them and try to implement them at home."

The governor expects that this experience, among other measures, will help in the development of the agro-industrial complex of the Vitebsk region: “You cannot turn this ship very quickly. We have focused on spring field work in order to successfully and technologically meet the deadlines that we have set ourselves. In general "I think the transformation of the agro-industrial complex of the Vitebsk region is underway. Now many options are being calculated on how to proceed further. Starting from small farms that negatively affect our statistics and work very poorly, and ending with production and processing programs - so that we focus on the processing of high-margin products and those that are in demand on the market. This process... Here, even "reform" is an inappropriate word. The process of evolution goes on without stopping."

It should be noted that the evolution of agriculture in the Vitebsk region is given a very short time. The President set the task to reach 9-10 million tons of grain harvest this year. The region needs to catch up, and the ways for this have been known and marked for a long time. The topic of obtaining a sufficient amount of high-quality grain is also relevant for some areas in the north of the Mogilev, MINSK and Grodno regions.

“In Vitebsk, we have been talking about changing the crop rotation for a thousand years, but not a single leader of the Vitebsk region has solved this problem. This needs cereals. What to cultivate? - the President raised the question during his visit to the experimental field in the Shklovsky district.

The head of state recalled that in this regard, last year he took the risk of very toughly raising the issue of cultivating winter barley. It is harvested before other grain crops. This allows you to quickly and earlier receive feed for livestock, more evenly use and run equipment before mass harvesting. This approach was practiced by the head of state, including personally during the period of work as the head of the economy.

“In order for us not to worry, as always, about cereal crops, I think that we need to return to a more serious cultivation of winter barley. Last year, when I made a tough decision, I was worried about one thing: will we be able to get more than just yield. We need high-quality good grain. If we get 10 million tons - happiness. On these sown areas, without reducing the volume of rapeseed and others. That is, through intensive farming," the President said.

“This year has shown that winter barley is a miracle. I have never seen such fields of winter barley, firstly. , I looked when there were shoots, and now, at the moment of filling the grain. I am unequivocally convinced that there will be winter barley," the Belarusian leader stressed.