OREANDA-NEWS. On September 20, 2008 President Alexander Lukashenko visited the town of Orsha where he participated in the Dazynki-2008 national harvesting festival and fair for rural toilers, reported the Official website http://president.gov.by.

The President flew over the area in a helicopter to see the harvesting campaign in progress as it is approaching completion and look at the preparations under way for the sowing of winter crops. The Head of State criticized the governors for their failure to cope with the shortcomings in that work, which he noticed during his flight. "After having done well with this year's harvest, you have folded your hands, while you should already think about next year's harvest," said the President on arriving in Orsha.

"We have been taking efforts in the Polessye to reclaim more land for agricultural use. And some areas are overgrown with weeds, stand uncultivated and unused," he said. Alexander Lukashenko also criticized the local authorities for their failure to make sure that the harvest of crops was brought in timely and autumn ploughing was done promptly without delays.

The President took a walk from his helicopter to Orsha's main square, where the Dazynki celebrations where due, to see the renovations done in the town as part of the preparations for the festival. He visited the former Jesuit Collegium that now houses an exhibition of paintings by Viktor Gromyko, a BSSR People's Artist, who gave the President a guided tour of the Collegium and showed his paintings.

Then, following the tradition, Alexander Lukashenko gave awards to the best harvesters of grain and leguminous crops in Belarus and the agricultural workers who stored the biggest amount of grass fodder in the country. After that, speaking at the Dazynki-2008 national harvesting festival and fair, Alexander Lukashenko reminded that around 700 big-size and small-size sites and buildings had been renovated in Orsha as part of the preparations for the Dazynki-2008. He said he was very glad to see positive changes in Orsha that had come as a result of improvements in the local amenities. "Orsha has got a new face. But these are just the first steps in the reviving of the town," said Alexander Lukashenko.

Given today's food crisis in the world, agricultural products are truly a strategic resource which is not only becoming essential for the country by helping it boost its foreign currency reserves, but is also becoming increasingly a means of ensuring social and political stability in the country, said Alexander Lukashenko.

"It is an opportunity for our agricultural industry to earn money," the Head of State said. "Big countries spend colossal money today to feed people. Food and drinking water, which we have in abundance, are in great demand on world markets. Let us sell them. But for us to sell more and more of them, we need to harvest annually no less than 10 million tonnes of grain every year until the end of this five-year period. If we can manage it, we will be a prosperous country, will revive our villages and provide a decent life for our village workers. And it will help facilitate considerable progress in towns," said Alexander Lukashenko.