MINSK, 23 July (BelTA) – Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko set a number of tasks for the local authorities and appropriate agencies as he hosted a nationwide teleconference on the country's harvest 2019 on 23 July, BelTA has learned.
To meet the targets
Rounding up the teleconference, the head of state reminded the participants of the meeting of the plans for the ongoing harvest campaign. They are to harvest 8.672 million tonnes of cereal and leguminous crops, 766,300 tonnes of coleseed, 52,600 tonnes of flax fiber, about 5 million tonnes of sugar beet, 1.717 million tonnes of grain maize, 1.1 million tonnes of potatoes and about 600,000 tonnes of vegetables.
“The targets must be met for sure,” the president stressed.
According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, supervising bodies need to focus on the execution of the harvesting plans. Public procurement, storage and high quality are the main things. Let us focus on them,” the head of state said.
To replenish fodder reserves
“During the previous unfruitful year we emptied all our grain and grass reserves. We need to replenish them,” the president said. He stressed that every farm needs to store fodder for two years ahead at best. “We need both fresh and dried fodder,” he added.
“All those who fail to commission silage trenches will be held responsible. We will not get quality fodder unless we prepare trenches. We have such a plan and we have to execute it. Yet, it has been met by 10-15% this year,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
To provide enough fuel
“We have agreed that the government and the prime minister will be responsible for the provision of fuel. Look through all possible schemes regarding fuel and fertilizers. We need to support the farms,” the head of state said. The president also gave instructions to help the farms with harvesters if necessary and check their proper keeping.
“I would like to ask you, Yuri Khadzhimuratovich [Internal Affairs Minister Yuri Karayev], to join the process like you did as we hosted the 2nd European Games. Law and order were secured everywhere,” the head of state told the internal affairs minister.
Aleksandr Lukashenko also paid special attention to the need for measures to prevent DUI accidents: “We have laws to deal with such drivers, especially during the harvest season.”
New Technologies – Lifesaver for Lazybones
“I already told the vice premier. I want to communicate this to the governors: balers, polymer wrap film is a good thing to store grass forage, silage, and other crops. This is a lifesaver for lazybones. You cut grass, wrap it into film, put a preservative and, here you are. Even if you cannot remove the bales from the field, it is still forage, and a good one,” the president said.
According to the head of state, there are cases where these roll balers stand idle because some farmers simply do not know how to use them. This equipment should be used during harvest, the president noted. “This is a relatively new technology, and we need to use it. We need to convey every farm the assignments with regard to how much silage they should have in bales. This is a lifesaver,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
The president added that theoretically it is feasible to harvest 10 million tonnes if all crops are removed neatly and if the corn grain harvest is about 2 million tonne. However, corn grain must be dried properly. “We know how to do it: crush corn and put it in plastic sleeves. We know how many corn crushing machines we have. We know their production capacity. We produce sleeves domestically, there is no shortage of them,” the president said.
To ensure iron-clad discipline
Aleksandr Lukashenko believes that it is possible to achieve great results during the harvest campaign only when the appropriate discipline is in place. In this connection, he demanded to step up efforts against drinking on the farms. “We should help farm managers because all the talks about the market and its self-regulation will lead us nowhere. Special attention should be paid to equipment maintenance. This is the most important issue; this is huge money,” the president said.
The president said that the harvest campaign which gets increased attention should not hamper the autumn planting works, especially when the weather is conducive to these works.
