OREANDA-NEWS. August 31, 2009. During his working visit to the Gomel oblast President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko gave an instruction to carry out complex melioration of the Polesie area during the next five-year term.

“During the next five-year term we will have to restore marshy lands, excluding perhaps the most impassable ones,” said the head of state.

The President underlined that the melioration will have to be smart, not like the way it was done during Soviet times when meliorated lands were used to cultivate tilled crops, thus destroying the soil.

“It will be a good profitable project,” noted the President. “We should remember that the demand for food is persistent. More than one billion people are starving”.

The head of state told Gomel Oblast Governor Alexander Yakobson: “One million tonnes of grain is not your level. It is necessary to harvest 1.5 million tonnes of grain and 0.5 million tonnes of corn”. Speaking about the accomplishment of agro-towns and citing the agro-town Lyaskovichi as an example, Alexander Lukashenko said: “We have only one five-year term to make the entire country look generally like that. Agro-towns across Belarus should be exactly like this, should be comfortable for people”.

“Polesie residents are civilised, diligent people, the core of our nation and we should present them to the world properly. They deserve it,” remarked the President. He reminded that at the beginning of his presidency he visited these areas and saw stunning poverty. At present the land demonstrates solid social and economic development. “Here is an example of how the Pripyat region should be developed,” the President stated.

Alexander Lukashenko spoke against artificially enlarging agricultural companies. “Don’t create large companies artificially by combining smaller ones. It is not necessary. Otherwise, we would repeat the mistakes committed in Soviet times,” said the President.