26 July, Minsk /Tatyana Chumakova - BELTA/. Belarusian farms are completing the harvesting of winter rapeseed, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food told a BELTA correspondent. As of 26 July, this crop has been harvested from 243.6 thousand hectares (89.7% of the total area). Farms in the Vitebsk region are leading in the harvesting pace, with 97.3% mown. In the Brest region, 92.2% has been harvested, in the Gomel region - 89.5%, in the Mogilev region - 89.3%, in the Minsk region - 85%, and in the Grodno region - 83.6% of the area allocated for winter rapeseed. 392 thousand tons of winter rapeseed have been threshed with an average yield of 16.1 centners per hectare across the country. The highest yield is in the Mogilev region - 18.5 centners per hectare. In the Brest region - 17.9 centners per hectare, in the Gomel region - 16.8 centners per hectare, in the Minsk region - 15.8 centners per hectare, in the Grodno region - 15.4 centners per hectare, and in the Vitebsk region - 11.3 centners per hectare. Rapeseed is used in Belarus for oil production, biofuel generation, and in the compound feed industry. Compared to other agricultural crops, rapeseed has significant advantages as it contributes to increasing the productivity of crops that follow it in crop rotation. Like any highly productive crop, rapeseed requires a high standard of farming, adherence to agro-technical requirements for soil cultivation and preparation for sowing, and organisation of pest, weed, and disease control. -0-

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