Deputy Minister Ildus Gabdrakhmanov spoke about field works at the press conference I Information Agency “Tatar Inform”

Harvesting of grains and pulses is about to finish in Tatarstan, over 4 million tons of grain have been received. Farmers have started harvesting of late cultures. It was stated by Ildus Gabdrakhmanov - Farming Agriculture Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Tatarstan, at the press conference in Information Agency “Tatar-Inform” today.

“If there were favourable weather conditions, we would receive 1 million tons of grain more. As the weather in the spring was good and top quality seed were used, we could carry out the sowing campaign in time”, - he stated.

As the speaker said, this year 96,300 ha were sowed with maize, 3,400 ha have been cleared. “Due to the weather the crop had ripened by the end of August, I suppose we will finish its harvesting in September. We are expecting to receive about 400,000 tons of threshed grain”, - he noted.

Vast fields with maize are situated in Alkeevo (10,100 ha), Alekseevskoe (6,700 ha), Aznakaevo (5,100 ha), Aksubaevo (3,900 ha), Arsk and Nurlat (3,700 ha in each) municipal districts.

According to the words of Deputy Minister, 101,000 ha have been sowed with rape and 110,000 ha have been sowed with sunflower. “Rape plantings were not bad, but due to the hot weather seeds were small, that is why the yield is not very big – about 8 dt/ha. In a week we are starting harvesting of sunflower, here we are expecting to get a good yield. We are going to have about 350,000-400,000 tons of oil seeds from rape and sunflower”, - he said.

As the speaker reported, 63,200 ha are sowed with sugar beetroot. “It has almost stopped growing in august. As of today the yield is 300 dt/ha while we expected to have 380-400 dt/ha”, - he said.

Ildus Gabdrakhmanov reminded that it was planned to sow 600,000 ha with winter crops. As of today, 443,700 ha have been sowed with winter crops (74%). Winter crops sowing has been finished in Nurlat (15,800 ha), Sarmanovo (18,800 ha), Alkeevo (22,200 ha) and Kaibitsy (9,000 ha) municipal districts.

“There were a lot of questions if to start winter crops sowing or not. By the beginning of the sowing campaign up to the current day there were almost no moisture in the tilth top soil. To have seedlings there should be at least 15-20 mm of moisture. However, in spite of this fact, we recommended to start sowing. By the 5th of September the most fields will be sowed with crops”, - he informed journalists.

“Farmers are happy today – finally precipitation has occurred”, - he added.

He also said that in Tatarstan soil treatment will be carried out on about 2 million ha of fields. As of today, soil has been treated on 882,000 ha (43%). Over 1,200 machines are used on the fields. “Tilling is going on with difficulties. I suppose that precipitation will make the process easier”, - he noted.

 “There are some difficulties with winter rye. Fields were sowed in the middle of August, but there are no seedlings. The situation should change after precipitation. If the autumn is early, there may be difficulties with winter rye”, - concluded Ildus Gabdrakhmanov.