3 September, Vitebsk /Olga Bogacheva - BELTA/. Farms in the Vitebsk region are completing the grain harvest, the head of the department of agriculture, crop production and fodder production of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee's Committee for Agriculture and Food, Aleksei Turkov, told a BELTA correspondent. As of 3 September, 450.8 thousand hectares of grain and leguminous crops have been mown in the region, or 96.7% of the area. Agricultural workers in the Gluboksky and Orshansky districts have fully completed this work. The Verkhnedvinsky, Gorodoksky, Dokshitsky, Lepelsky, Miorsky, Postavsky, Sennoensky, Tolochinsky and Chashniksky districts have virtually completed the harvest. In the remaining regions, there are insignificant areas left, mainly leguminous crops. This year, the harvest of Vitebsk region agrarians amounted to over 1.3 million tonnes of grain with an average yield of 28.9 centners per hectare, which slightly exceeds last year's level. At the same time, the weather seriously affected the harvest volume of the northernmost region of the country: cold and dry periods at the beginning of the growing season and regular rains during the harvesting campaign. Currently, other agricultural works are underway in the region: corn and second-cut grass are being harvested, and buckwheat as it ripens. The entire September will be busy for agricultural workers. -0-

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