On April 26, Vitebsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. Top dressing of winter cereals and rapeseed will be completed this week in the Vitebsk region, as reported to BELTA correspondent by Alexei Turkov, Head of the Department of Agronomy, Crop Production and Fodder Production of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee's Agriculture and Food Committee. As of April 26, 214.8 thousand hectares, or 88% of the area, of winter cereals, 49.5 thousand hectares, or 90%, of winter rapeseed, 243.3 thousand hectares, or 67%, of grassland, and 143 thousand hectares, or 96%, of pastures have been top-dressed in the region. Six districts of the region have fully completed top dressing of cereals and rapeseed: Beshenkovichi, Glubokoe, Polotsk, Postavy, Sharkovshchina, and Shumilino. In order to speed up these works, equipment is being redeployed from farms where top dressing is completed to those where it is needed, Alexei Turkov noted. Sowing began in the fields of the Vitebsk region on March 24. However, their progress is currently hampered by adverse weather conditions: if initially it was due to low temperatures, now rains are preventing machinery from entering the fields. Over the past day, the region's agrarians managed to sow 6.1 thousand hectares of spring crops. Due to downpours, machinery was practically idle in the Verkhnedvinsk and Sharkovshchina districts, where 0.1 hectares and 0.2 hectares were sown, respectively. In total, as of April 26, almost 42.5 thousand hectares, or 9.9%, have been sown in the region, including 2.1 thousand hectares, or 5.1% of the target, of spring rapeseed. To carry out sowing within the optimal timeframe, agricultural workers are using every favorable minute. -0-

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