Sowing of winter grain crops completed in Vitebsk region

October 1, Vitebsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. Sowing of winter grain crops has been completed in the Vitebsk region, the Agriculture and Food Committee of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee informed a BELTA correspondent. This year, the area sown with winter grain crops in the region amounted to 233 thousand hectares. The largest areas for these crops are in the Orsha, Tolochin, Verkhnedvinsk, and Glubokoye districts. The intensive work of the region's agrarians does not slow down with the completion of grain harvesting and sowing of winter crops, as it is necessary to harvest corn, vegetables, potatoes, and flax from the fields in October, and to prepare the soil for next year's harvest, the regional agricultural committee noted. Currently, flax harvesting is nearing completion. Work in cornfields requires acceleration, where as of October 1, 36.8 thousand hectares, or 38.4% of the area, have been harvested with a gross yield of green mass of 929 thousand tons. 73 thousand tons of potatoes have been dug with an average yield of 211.8 centners per hectare. The highest yields of the Belarusians' "second bread" are harvested by agrarians from the Polotsk (276.4 centners per hectare), Tolochin (423.4 centners per hectare), and Shumilino (302.6 centners per hectare) districts. 28.4% of the area, or about 1.4 thousand hectares, remain to be harvested. Mass harvesting of cabbage (17.9 hectares harvested, 427.8 tons collected), beets (147.3 hectares and 2.2 thousand tons, respectively), and carrots (146.4 hectares and 3 thousand tons) continues. Students and pupils provided significant assistance to farmers in this in September. The region's farms have just begun plowing the fallow land: about 5% of the areas have been plowed. In general, the rural workers are aimed at completing all major types of autumn work by their professional holiday. -0-