On February 21, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. The Vitebsk Regional Committee for State Control has identified violations in the application of mineral fertilizers in agricultural organizations of the region, reported today at a meeting of the State Control Committee board by Nikolai Khatskevich, Head of the Department for Control of the Agro-Industrial and Environmental Complexes of the Regional State Control Committee, as reported by BELTA correspondent. As a result of inspections of district agroservice enterprises and OJSC "Vitebsk Oblagorservice", specialists of the control department found that mineral fertilizers were applied in an unbalanced manner in terms of nutrients to some sown areas, and adjustments to fertilizer application plans were not made considering changes in crop sown areas. Thus, unbalanced application of mineral fertilizers in terms of nutrients and their application not in accordance with the application plan prevented OJSC "Rossonsky Rayagorservice" from achieving the average calculated yield of grain and leguminous crops in either 2010 or 2011. The actual yield of grain and leguminous crops in 2010 was only 11.9 centners per hectare, which is 2.5 times lower than the calculated yield, and in 2011 it was 19.4 centners per hectare, or 1.8 times lower than the calculated yield. The conducted inspections and monitoring results show that due to insufficient control by the regional and district agricultural production committees over the compliance of agricultural organizations with technological requirements for mineral fertilizer application rates for crops, serious violations are occurring in terms of adhering to scientifically based doses of mineral fertilizer application, which directly affects crop yields, emphasized Nikolai Khatskevich. According to soil surveys conducted by the Vitebsk Regional Design and Survey Station for Agricultural Chemistry, agricultural organizations of the region have not applied over 16 thousand tons of active substance of fertilizers to the soil for winter crops of the 2012 harvest, which is 26% of the requirement. As of February 16 of the current year, the region's farms are provided with mineral fertilizers for spring sowing at 22% of the requirement. In total, farms need 250.3 thousand tons of fertilizers. The Regional State Control Committee intends to continue monitoring the implementation of measures to increase soil fertility and the targeted use of budget funds. -0-

BELTA