OREANDA-NEWS. August 11, 2009. The exchange of farm machines between the regions should be well-justified during the harvesting campaign, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said when touring of the agricultural companies of the Minsk oblast.

“An accurate and reasonable approach should be applied to the redeployment of farm machines as they are expensive,” the head of state said.

Speaking about the harvesting campaign, the President said that the Vitebsk and Minsk oblasts are five or seven days behind. The Grodno oblast is lagging two days behind. The main thing is the speed. These three or five days may be difficult to make up for, the President said.

The President was informed that 58% of the areas under crops have been harvested. The average crop yield makes up 39.1 centners per hectare. The record 6% were harvested in the last 24 hours. Though the grain harvests are not good in the neighbouring countries, it would be better to utilise grain effectively inside the country instead of exporting it, Alexander Lukashenko believes. “This year the prices for grain will be good. But if it will be more beneficial to use the grain in the cattle-breeding industry, then it is what we need to do,” the President underscored.

The Belarusian leader also touched upon the issue of milk production technologies. Alexander Lukashenko urged to set up new farms. In his words, Belarusian farmers need to raise the quality of milk to European standards so that they could sell it to the EU member states.