6 September, Vitebsk /Olga Bogacheva - BELTA/. Farmers in the Vitebsk region have completed the grain harvest, the Agriculture and Food Committee of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee informed a BELTA correspondent. As of 6 September, a total of 456.4 thousand hectares have been harvested in the region, which is 98% of the planned area. Farmers have harvested all grain crops, with only a small amount of legumes, buckwheat, and millet remaining to be harvested, which require a few more days to ripen. Farmers intend to complete this work in the near future. This year, the harvest of the Vitebsk region's agricultural workers amounted to 1.310 million tonnes of grain, and including the harvest grown in private subsidiary farms, it is about 1.4 million tonnes. This is the highest gross harvest in the region over the last 36 years, the Regional Agricultural and Food Committee emphasized. "Overall, this is a good result, considering the difficult conditions under which the harvest campaign took place in the northernmost region of the country," specialists noted. For instance, August was largely accompanied by frequent rains and thunderstorms, which led to significant lodging of crops and slowed down the harvesting pace. Currently, by the instruction of the Chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, Alexander Kosinets, all efforts of farmers should be directed towards completing all major works by 20 September: it is necessary to harvest all spring rapeseed, buckwheat, straw, flax, and potatoes, and to sow winter grains. Students will provide significant assistance to the agricultural workers in this task, with some of them already working in the fields.-0-

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