
MINSK DISTRICT, 17 June (BelTA) - Some areas of Belarus' agricultural sector still lack discipline, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at an off-site meeting in Minsk Oblast on 17 June, BelTA has learned.
Half of the current chairpersons of the oblast executive committees have no previous farming experience, the head of state said. On the other hand, these specialists have held high positions, including in the energy sector and even in law enforcement agencies.
Aleksandr Lukashenko expects that these managers will help improve discipline. The head of state added that there were enough farming specialists in the regions. “We have many specialists. What we still lack is a well-organized process. We will see what comes of this personnel experiment. There is a lack of discipline. We are doing everything right. But sometimes we do it slowly, or do not do it at all. Executive discipline is the number one priority,” the Belarusian leader emphasized. “Agriculture is a mess. It is not true that we lack specialists. We need to organize them and make them work. We need discipline. We need results.”



Addressing the participants of the meeting, the head of state mentioned a significant number of failures as the major reason for today’s event. “I decided to take a military-style approach. We had a good formula in the army: ‘Do as I do’. So I decided to show you that I demand this from you, and you should do it this way. There will be no livestock losses then. If current livestock mortality continues, we will end up with nothing to eat ourselves. Do not think that this is Lukashenko's whim,” the president said.
Regarding his thesis that failing to work properly would lead the country to war, Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized that this was no political propaganda. “I want you, the authorities in the first place, to understand this. We know how to work,” the Belarusian leader said.

According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, many crop production issues have already been discussed, including at the presidential level. Approaches to cultivating rapeseed, flax, winter barley, and many other crops have been outlined. “I grew up in the village. I’ve lived long enough to understand that a person cannot live without food, without clothes, the essentials. The world's population is constantly growing. We know how to work. Let's develop. We must not forget that we are a machine engineering country. We have long-standing traditions in machine engineering and other fields like chemistry, petrochemistry, and oil refining. We have many industries where we know how to work. We need to invest there and set up new enterprises. We need to do what we know how to do,” the president stated.