August 17, Lepel /Own. inf./ Warm dry weather allows harvesting work to be carried out confidently and systematically. As of August tenth, grain crops have been harvested from 64 percent of the sown areas, with a yield of 30 centners per hectare.
August 17, Lepel /Own. inf./ Warm dry weather allows harvesting work to be carried out confidently and systematically. As of August tenth, grain crops have been harvested from 64 percent of the sown areas, with a yield of 30 centners per hectare.
Agricultural produce sales are proceeding in parallel with the harvest. First and foremost, agricultural organizations must fulfill the state order. This year, the district was assigned the following mandatory targets: 6210 tons of grain are to be delivered to state processing enterprises, including 2500 tons of food wheat, 2000 tons of food rye, 50 tons of oats for groats, 60 tons of buckwheat, 600 tons of malting barley, 40 tons of feed wheat, and 960 tons of feed triticale.
As of August tenth, 4400 tons have already been delivered and accounted for, which corresponds to 70 percent of the planned target. Over two thousand more tons have been delivered to procurement enterprises; however, before being stored, the grain must undergo specific checks and analyses for moisture content, weediness, and quality. It must be cleaned again on-site, dried if necessary, weighed, and only then can it be stored. Naturally, after all procedures, it loses some weight; the refraction percentage usually fluctuates around twelve.
JSC "Ladna" was required to deliver 450 tons of grain this year, SVF "Zaozerie" – 860 tons, KUVSGP "Lepelskoe" – 850 tons, JSC "Ladasna" – 800 tons, KUVSGP "Bobrovo" – 600 tons. All these farms have already settled their accounts with the state. JSC "Chareyshchina" has a plan to deliver 780 tons of grain, including 500 tons of malting barley. They still need to deliver 350 tons of this grain, which will be done in the near future to complete their settlement.
The scale of private farms is, of course, incomparable to that of agricultural enterprises; however, it is impossible to imagine the overall harvest without their contribution. For instance, "Azimka" has delivered all 150 tons allocated to it according to the plan. "Pazemshchine" still needs to deliver 20 tons of food rye out of the planned 100 tons, which will be done in the very near future.
Grain acceptance for the state order is carried out by four state-owned enterprises. The lion's share falls on the Vitebsk Grain Processing Plant – 4,550 tons. The Vitebsk Distillery Winery accepts one thousand tons of grain for alcohol production, Polotsk OJSC "Belsolod" accepts 600 tons of malting barley, and Polotsk Grain Processing Plant will accept 60 tons of buckwheat for processing. Lepel private enterprise "Zhitnitsa" attempted to obtain the status of an organization authorized to accept grain for the state order this year, but has so far been denied. Meanwhile, the grain harvest in Belarus, and in particular in the Vitebsk region, is quite significant, so it can be assumed that rye processors will not be idle.
The quality of the grain fully satisfies the customer. Although the grain processing plants were allowed to accept grain with a moisture content of up to 18 percent, the majority of it had a moisture content of 14, 13, and sometimes 12%.
Food wheat was accepted as third class. Class is determined by the gluten content in the grain.
There are no significant problems with grain supplies for the state order. At the very beginning, however, there was a slight delay. The reason, surprisingly, was the good weather. It allowed for the mass start of the harvest, and tens and hundreds of tons of grain with a low moisture content, which allowed it to be sent to procurement enterprises after minor cleaning, flowed to the grain receiving points of agricultural organizations. In the first few days, there was a shortage of transport to deliver agricultural products to customers, but this problem was resolved within four to five days. Vehicles transported grain around the clock.
There are also no problems with payment for the supplied agricultural products. For example, feed grain is accepted at 1.7 million rubles per ton plus a 10% value-added tax. Third-class wheat is accepted at 1.2 million rubles. According to economists' calculations, these prices cover the production cost of grain and even allow for profitability. Agricultural producers have the right to sell the remaining products at contract prices, which are usually 10-20 percent higher than the state order purchase prices.
All supplies are made with a 50% prepayment, which allows for the settlement of wages and the purchase of fuel and lubricants for agricultural work. For this purpose, special credit lines have been allocated to the procurement agents.
Barys YAFFREMAU,
Head of the Department of Agriculture and Food