Chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee Nikolai Sherstnev summed up the work of farmers and assessed the effectiveness of the created holdings

The unprecedented harvest is behind us. Unprecedented – due to the amount of precipitation that fell on the agricultural fields. Unprecedented – because of how it united the country's leadership, the region, interested departments, districts, and agricultural organizations into a single whole to achieve results.

The Chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, Nikolai Sherstnev, is always at the forefront of the agricultural year's events, especially during the harvest season. He personally visited farms and districts more than once to be at the epicenter of what was happening, monitoring the harvesting progress not only through reports.

Daily headquarters meetings, operational recommendations, and necessary adjustments on the ground. He knows how to unite and mobilize everyone, and organize work. On the eve of the harvest festival, we talked with Nikolai Nikolaevich about the specifics of the harvesting campaign, the results of the harvest, and the assessment of the work of the Vitebsk region's agrarians.

– Nikolai Nikolaevich, in your opinion, what was this agricultural season like?

– Difficult. And it required great effort, high organization, discipline, and responsibility from the field workers. It is no secret that the spring sowing campaign took place in extremely difficult weather conditions, which negatively affected the pace of field work, including the sowing of spring crops.

 From the second ten days of April, very cold weather for this time of year set in in the Vitebsk region, accompanied by frequent precipitation in the form of rain and wet snow. Widespread soil over-moistening was noted.

In the third ten days, the region as a whole received 233% of the precipitation norm, specifically, Sennensky and Sharkovshchinsky districts received 3 times the norm, and Gorodok district received 4 times the norm. As a result, many farms started sowing only in May.

In the second and third decades of July, it rained daily, causing the harvesting deadlines to be postponed by 10 days. The mass harvesting of grain and leguminous crops in the Vitebsk region only began on August 5. However, the rains in the third decade of August further exacerbated the situation, leading to crop losses. Nevertheless, despite the natural disasters, thanks to the diligent work of agricultural workers, the gross grain harvest in all categories of farms exceeded 1 million tons, which is 170 thousand tons more than the previous year's figure.

– Which regions and farms became leaders in the end?

– In the challenging conditions of the current year, it was the stably operating farms that once again showed high results. SPK "Larinovka" of the Orsha district, headed by Alexander Kukhtенkov, achieved a grain yield of 84 centners per hectare. In PK "Ol'govskoye" of the Vitebsk district, under the leadership of Vladimir Safronov, and in OAO "Rudakovo," led by Mikhail Pinchuk, yields of over 66 centners per hectare were achieved. OAO "Agrokombinat 'Yubileynyy'" of the Orsha district, managed by Alexander Firsin, provided a gross harvest of 34.5 thousand tons of grain with an average yield of grain and leguminous crops of 56.1 centners per hectare, among others.

Among the districts, it is worth noting the Orsha district (for the first time in the district's history, 147 thousand tons of grain were harvested), Vitebsk and Dubrovno districts (93.5 thousand tons of grain each), and Verkhnedvinsk district (67 thousand tons). These regions made a significant contribution to the overall harvest of the Pridvinye region and became winners in the regional competition "Dazhynki-2017."

A number of farms also showed good results in the production of rapeseed oilseeds: OAO "Agrokombinat 'Yubileynyy'" (3392 tons, average yield 26.8 centners per hectare); OAO "Bobrovo-Agro" of the Dubrovno district (1256 tons, yield 28.1 centners per hectare); OAO "Vitebskaya Broyler­naya Ptitsеfabrika" (2154 tons, yield 24.1 centners per hectare).

The best results in the cultivation of leguminous crops were achieved by: UP "Polimir-Agro" of Polotsk district with a share of 30% in the structure of grain crops, which threshed 1241 tons with an average yield of 35.5 c/ha; SPK "Mayak Braslavsky" of Braslav district (15% in the structure of grain crops) threshed 1437 tons with a yield of 39.4 c/ha; SF "Klevtsy" of Liozno district (20% in the structure) threshed 1076 tons with a yield of 53.8 c/ha, and others.

The achieved result is the outcome of the intensive work of not only the agrarians. The labor of workers from industrial, processing, transport, agroservice, and other organizations, employees of institutions of the region's cities, students, and pupils who helped during the most responsible periods, has been invested in the agricultural sector. Many thanks to everyone for their readiness to provide support to agricultural organizations and assistance in solving emerging problems.

– One of the most important decisions to increase the efficiency of the Vitebsk region's agro-industrial complex was the creation of integration structures. What contribution did they make to the overall result?

– Today, it is impossible to do without transformations in agriculture. The creation of integration structures is a kind of reset of the agro-industrial complex, which consists in uniting producers, processors, and the trade network into a single legal entity. Such large associations guarantee our food security, a path to stability and development.
This year, large holdings have formed one-fifth of the total harvest of the Vitebsk region. The gross grain harvest from the Polotsk integration structure is 21 thousand tons, from the Glubokoye structure – 34 thousand tons of grain, from the Vitebsk structure – 44 thousand tons.
The largest gross grain harvest and yield per hectare were obtained from the Orsha integration structure – 74 thousand tons of grain with a yield of 38.8 c/ha. Next year, these associations face the task of increasing the arable land area to over 200 thousand hectares and harvesting half a million tons of grain.

– Nikolay Nikolayevich, how is the technical re-equipment in the agricultural sector proceeding?

– Quite actively. In the current year, agricultural organizations of the region have acquired 940 units of equipment through OJSC "Promagrolizing" and at their own expense: high-power tractors with a capacity of 350 hp and above, modern high-performance grain and forage harvesters, loaders of various lifting capacities, reversible plows, mowers of various working widths, and a number of other equipment. Currently, work on supplying equipment to the region is ongoing.

– If all components of the technological process are optimally performed, what yield do you think Vitebsk region can expect?

– Taking into account all components – the high-level performance of all technological operations within optimal timeframes, favorable weather conditions – the yield for Vitebsk region can exceed 1 million 500 thousand tons.

– What are the plans for next year?

– Expansion of perennial grass areas, increase in the proportion of clover, focus on leguminous crops, technological cultivation of corn – all this confirms the correctness of the chosen strategy. The chosen direction will be developed in the coming years.

We need to provide the livestock industry with its own cheap protein. To achieve this, we need to increase the sowing of leguminous crops to 120 thousand hectares (peas, lupine, and other leguminous crops in pure form). This will constitute at least 15% of the grain acreage, with the goal of obtaining at least 200-250 thousand tons of leguminous crops.

We should also expand rapeseed sowing to 120 thousand hectares to obtain at least 240 thousand tons of oilseeds. Corn sowing needs to be optimized at the level of 60 thousand hectares. In total, grains and legumes should occupy about 50% of the sown area structure.

Fieldwork in the agricultural organizations of Vitebsk region is still ongoing. It is necessary to harvest corn for fodder purposes to provide livestock with corn silage, and to plow stubble as effectively as possible before the frost to ensure timely sowing of spring crops in 2018.

– Thank you for the interview.

Elena Sys. Photo by Anton Stepanishchev. "Vitebskiye vesti".