Agriculture Ministry: Russia launches sowing season

MOSCOW, Feb 25 (PRIME) -- Southern regions of Russia have already launched sowing works, and the rest of the country may join in about seven to 10 days earlier than planned, Pyotr Chekmaryov, director of the Agriculture Ministry’s department for plant production, said Thursday at a meeting of the State Duma, the parliament’s lower chamber.

“Spring field works were launched in the country, top dressing of winter crops is now going on in the Southern and North Caucasus federal districts, while the sowing campaign has been already launched in the Stavropol Region, the temperature (there) goes up to 20 degrees Celsius and higher, some sort of an early spring happened there,” he said.

“The forecast for spring is that spring field works may be launched by seven to 10 days earlier, so farmers are preparing now,” he said.

He said that more than 79 million hectares are to be sown this year and more than 52 million hectares will be sown during spring field works, an increase compared with last year’s figures.

The ministry expects the grain forecast to stand at 104–105 million tonnes in 2016, slightly above the 2015 harvest of 104 million tonnes. The country’s grain exports are expected to remain flat on the year at 30 million tonnes in the 2015-2016 agricultural year, which started on July 1, 2015.

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