The sowing of grain crops in the Vitebsk region is planned to be completed by May 3

April 30, Vitebsk / Sergei Kochetov - BELTA /. Sowing of grain and leguminous crops in the Vitebsk region is planned to be completed by May 3. This was announced today to journalists by the chairman of the regional executive committee, Alexander Kosinets, BelTA correspondent reports. As of April 30, grain and leguminous crops already occupy an area of 225 thousand hectares in the region, with about 80 thousand hectares remaining to be sown. Due to the death of winter crops, farmers are forced to re-sow part of the areas in parallel with the main sowing. The region's agro-industrial complex is fully equipped with high-performance machinery, fertilizers, and seeds. Scientific support for the work is organized at a high level, with agro-technologies being prioritized in the field, and special attention is paid to ensuring that all types of work comply with them. In general, spring sowing in the Vitebsk region will be completed by May 9. "The spring field work is organized at a good level, with intensive work from early morning to ten in the evening; we just need to maintain the pace," believes Alexander Kosinets. For example, today farmers in the region sow over 20 thousand hectares per day, whereas two years ago they managed only 10 thousand hectares. This became possible thanks to the large-scale modernization of agro-industrial enterprises, which replenished their machinery fleet with energy-intensive tractors, and other types of units and machines. A lot of work has also been done in the region to improve the contour of fields under the "Clean Fields" program, during the implementation of which over 37 thousand shrubs have been cleared this year alone. In addition, personal subsidiary farms of citizens will be assisted in carrying out field work, and farmers will receive support. In general, in the region, spring grain and leguminous crops are planned to be sown on an area of about 309 thousand hectares (including re-sowing of winter crops that died). 20 thousand hectares are allocated for flax, spring rapeseed will be sown on 13.1 thousand hectares, and corn crops will occupy 100 thousand hectares. In addition, for the 2011 harvest, winter grain crops have been sown on an area of over 240 thousand hectares, with winter wheat and triticale occupying almost 70% of the winter acreage. Winter rapeseed occupies almost 87 thousand hectares, and its acreage has expanded by more than 15% compared to 2010. In 2011, the farmers of the Vitebsk region are set an ambitious task to achieve a grain harvest of about 2 million tons, produce 20 thousand tons of flax fiber, 270 thousand tons of potatoes, 250 thousand tons of rapeseed oilseeds, and also prepare over 1.2 million tons of feed units of green fodder for the public herd. -0-