Top dressing of winter cereals and rapeseed will be completed this week in the Vitebsk region

April 26, Vitebsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. Top dressing of winter cereals and rapeseed will be completed this week in the Vitebsk region, Alexei Turkov, head of the department of land cultivation, crop production and fodder production of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee's Agriculture and Food Committee, told a BELTA correspondent. As of April 26, 214.8 thousand hectares, or 88% of the area, of winter cereals, 49.5 thousand hectares, or 90%, of winter rapeseed, 243.3 thousand hectares, or 67%, of grassland, and 143 thousand hectares, or 96%, of pastures have been top-dressed in the region. Six districts of the region have fully completed top dressing of cereals and rapeseed: Beshenkovichi, Glubokoye, Polotsk, Postavy, Sharkovshchina and Shumilino. To speed up these works, equipment is being transferred from farms where top dressing is completed to those where it is needed, Alexei Turkov noted. Sowing began in the fields of the Vitebsk region on March 24. However, their progress is currently hampered by unfavorable weather conditions: if initially it was due to low temperatures, now rains prevent machinery from going into the fields. Over the past day, the region's farmers managed to sow 6.1 thousand hectares of spring crops. Due to heavy rains, machinery was practically idle in the Verkhnedvinsk and Sharkovshchina districts, where 0.1 hectares and 0.2 hectares were sown, respectively. In total, as of April 26, almost 42.5 thousand hectares, or 9.9%, have been sown in the region, including 2.1 thousand hectares, or 5.1% of the target, of spring rapeseed. To carry out sowing in optimal terms, agricultural workers use every favorable minute. -0-