Marat Akhmetov reports on the beginning of the harvesting season: As many as 44,000 hectares or three per cent of the area have been harvested in Tatarstan

On July, 28, speaking at the Government House of the republic at a regional video-conference held by Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov with participation of Prime Minister of the republic Aleksey Pesoshin and all regional municipalities, Minister of Agriculture and Food of the republic Marat Akhmetov reported that 44,000 hectares or three per cent of the area have been threshed, producing 142,000 tonnes of grain with an average yield of about 32.3 centners per hectare.

According to Akhmetov, Zainsk, Nurlatsk, Sarman, Apastovo and Buinsk regions are the leaders in the harvesting campaign.

As many as 1.5 million hectares of grain and pulses, namely 500,000 hectares of winter crops, one million hectares of spring crops, need to be harvested in the republic. There are also about 245,000 hectares of oil crops (rapeseed and sunflower) for harvesting.

Akhmetov said that the harvesting campaign will be carried out with 3,400 harvesters with average load of about 470 hectares on each.

During the meeting, Akhmetov also reported on the maintained work with the small forms of farming in the village. According to him, one of the basic areas is the availability of livestock in rural farmsteads, farms, which accounts for up to one third of milk and meat of livestock and poultry produced in the republic.

He asked heads of municipal regions of the republic to pay attention to the work related to the construction of mini-farms and the timely submission of documents.

Minister of Agriculture and Food of the republic added that Tatarstan is one of the five pilot regions of Russia to establish a programme for the development of agricultural consumer cooperation.