OREANDA-NEWS. February 17, 2011. The Ministry of Agriculture and Food and regional authorities need to ensure a systematic approach to the agricultural industry development, Prime Minister of Belarus Mikhail Myasnikovich said at a meeting of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers of Belarus.

Analyzing the development level of agriculture, the head of government drew attention to the fact that Belarus has a lot of programs in agriculture, including in poultry farming, dairy and oilseed sectors, potato and vegetable growing, livestock breeding, etc. “It seems we have devised rules for all occasions. But the programs are not implemented by a magic wand. Practical efforts are needed as well as a specific systematic approach,” underlined the Prime Minister. According to him, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food has not ensured this systematic approach. “This involves organizational issues, and also the issues related to the economics of the industry, legal security, physical infrastructure and logistics, personnel. These are five blocks of issues which need to be addressed,” said Mikhail Myasnikovich.

The head of Government stressed that the challenges facing the industry are many and big. “This is a kind of the moment of truth. We must reach USD 7 billion in exports by 2015, with a USD 4 billion surplus. It is very difficult, in part because the economics of the industry is in a very bad condition, I would say, in dire straits. Unfortunately, no effective measures have been suggested yet,” Mikhail Myasnikovich said. The PM also pointed to huge debts of agricultural organizations. They should be cleared, the PM stressed.

The Premier urged the Agriculture and Food Ministry and other ministries and departments to make sure that their documents spell out objectives and strategies of the development of the national economy.

“We need a systematic approach to addressing these issues,” the Premier stated.

Speaking about the forthcoming sowing campaign, Mikhail Myasnikovich added that a range of decisions had already been taken. In his words, the level of organization of the spring field works this year is in fact the start of a new five-year period.

The head of Government noted that this year the domestic need for cereal products, including buckwheat, should be met in full. More buckwheat seeds should be purchased if needed to make sure that agricultural enterprises have no shortages of this crop, Mikhail Myasnikovich said.

Minister of Agriculture and Food Mikhail Rusyi informed that the areas under buckwheat will be increased this year. “We are working on this issue, though it has proved to be rather challenging,” he said.

According to the Minister, the buckwheat sowing target was fulfilled only by 58% in Vitebsk Oblast and by 79% in Minsk Oblast. Gomel and Mogilev oblasts have amassed the necessary amount of buckwheat seeds. The cereal products department has accumulated over 300 tonnes of buckwheat seeds, another 300 tonnes will be available soon. “The buckwheat seeds distribution schedule has already been prepared, so the seeds will be distributed among agricultural enterprises before 15 March,” Mikhail Rusyi said.

This year grain production in Belarus is expected to reach 10 million tonnes, Minister said in a session of the Council of Ministers’ Presidium.

“We need to produce at least nearly 10 million tonnes of grain this year,” the Minister noted.

Potato production is projected to make up 7.5 million tonnes, sugar beet – 4.2 million tonnes, flax fiber – 60,00 tonnes, rape oilseeds – 870,000 tonnes. The plans also include the production of more than 2 million tonnes of vegetables and over 6.5 million tonnes of forage.

Milk production is projected at the amount of 6.7 million tonnes, livestock – 670,000 tonnes, swine – nearly 500,000 tonnes, with 2.5 billion eggs.

The annual milk yield will reach 5,000 kilos of milk per cow.

According to Mikhail Rusyi, the statistics data for January 2011 show a positive trend in the development of the agricultural sector. The agricultural production almost reached 6.1% as against the projected 4.8%.

This year Belarus plans to build 72 pork production facilities, to upgrade and re-equip 102 such facilities. There are also plans to upgrade 236 dairy farms, and built 76 new facilities, to construct and upgrade 507 facilities for young livestock. The work will be continued on construction and modernization of potato and vegetable storage facilities, grain cleaning and grain silo complexes.

Analyzing the preparations for the sowing campaign, the Minister noted that a good start to the campaign was made last autumn. The area of 2.2 million hectares was ploughed in autumn. Some 1.6 million hectares were sown with winter grain crops. These are 105 hectares more than in 2010. The area under winter wheat was greatly expanded, by 80,000 hectares. Winter rape was sown on 500 hectares, 50 hectares more than in the previous year.

In advance to the sowing campaign, the structure of the seed growing system was ensured across agricultural organizations. The seed stocks include 30,000 tonnes of high-quality seeds. “We have a clear schedule of where and what to sow,” said Mikhail Rusui. We have the stocks of seeds of spring grain crops and legumes, potatoes, flax, perennial grasses. “Some 65,000 tonnes of grain are stocked in the provident fund which can only be unlocked in the event of a cataclysm. These stocks could be used for other purposes only by order of the Minister,” Mikhail Rusyi said.

Particular attention is attached to the storage of seed potatoes. This is one of cash-generating crops, which provides a high level of profitability, the Minister said. According to him, the state of potatoes in storage facilities is good. Yet, 52 agricultural organizations have reported problems with the quality of 2,400 tonnes of seed potatoes. “The reason is the bad storage practices. Now they are busy processing, sorting out and redistributing potatoes,” the Minister said.