The greatest number of crops were damaged in the Gomel and Brest regions. How do farmers save their harvest?

Photo July 16, MINSK . After bad weather over the weekend, which caused significant damage to agriculture in all regions of Belarus, farmers resumed the harvesting campaign. The largest number of affected areas was counted in the south of the republic and its central part: over 8 thousand hectares of crops were damaged in the Gomel region, more than 7 thousand hectares and 6 thousand hectares in the Brest and Minsk regions, respectively. At the same time, experts hope to save the harvest in some areas. Nikolai Leshik, HEAD of the main department of crop production of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, told reporters how the work



is organized and what the current situation is in the fields, BELTA correspondent reports. As of today, more than 17% of grain crops and over 58% of winter rapeseed have already been harvested. “I think the pace will increase. In the coming days we will harvest about 45 thousand hectares per day,” a representative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food predicted.


Natural anomalies registered across the republic over the weekend caused significant damage to grain crops, rapeseed crops and feed crops, primarily corn. Serious damage was caused to flax crops. The overall situation in the country is estimated at 27.5 thousand hectares of damaged areas, however Nikolai Leshik emphasized that work to assess the consequences of the violence of the elements continues and there is reason to assume that the figure will increase. Greater damage was caused to the cultivated areas of the Gomel, Brest and Minsk regions. In other regions of the republic the numbers are slightly lower.

Currently, the work of the commission continues to assess the damage caused; experts are determining the future fate of the crops. If the grain is damaged, but not completely destroyed, the harvest will be harvested with losses and lower quality, since the technology allows you to raise even the laid grain. Unfortunately, there are also areas where the ears cannot be saved - such crops will be written off. The fields here will be prepared for sowing the next crops. For forage crops, areas with densities exceeding 50% of the original planted volumes will be removed. The fate of others will be decided by experts: the areas will either be sown with intermediate forage plants or prepared for sowing winter crops for the 2025 harvest
. Damaged crops are not the only problem for farmers. Many agricultural facilities - farms, grain fields and dryers - were left without electricity, which does not allow active cleaning of waterlogged areas, since the grain from them must be dried. This affected the pace of harvesting work, reducing it by an order of magnitude. It is also important to ensure the supply of electricity to livestock breeding facilities, because without electricity it is difficult to ensure regular feeding and milking of cattle. In the absence of electricity, it is also necessary to solve the problem of ensuring the safety of MILK in the heat and its timely delivery to processing plants.

“Any damage caused to the agricultural complex has a negative impact on the economy. This is a net minus in the income of agricultural enterprises and a decrease in production volumes in the republic as a whole,” summarized Nikolai Leshik.

Photo by Nadezhda Kostetskaya