OREANDA-NEWS. July 29, 2008. Belarus has harvested the first million tonnes of grain. By the morning July 29 the agricultural companies of the country harvested 1.119 million tonnes of grain.

With 366,000 tonnes, the Gomel oblast is the countrywide leader in terms of the gross grain output. It is followed by the Brest oblast (286,500 tonnes), Grodno (175,000 tonnes), Minsk (171,300 tonnes). The Mogilev oblast is approaching the first 100,000 tonnes. The Vitebsk oblast cropped 30,000 tonnes.

A total of 323,200 hectares have been harvested. This makes up 14% of the total cropping area. The leader of the harvest campaign is the Gomel oblast (35.4%). The Brest oblast has gathered almost 22%, Grodno 12%, Minsk and Mogilev oblast 8% each. Some 80,000 hectares were cropped on July 28, or 3.5% of the total cropping area. To complete the harvest campaign in 20 or 25 days, the farmers need to harvest 100,000-120,000 hectares every day.

The yield this year is 34.8 centners per hectares, up 4.8 centners than last year. All regions of the country have improved their yield indices from last year. The highest yield is in the Grodno oblast: 44 centners per hectare, up 7.8 centners over last year.

According to specialists, there are all the grounds to expect that the Brest, Vitebsk, Mogilev and Gomel oblasts will harvest 1 million each. The Grodno oblast will outperform them while the Minsk oblast is expected to come close to 2 million tonnes.