Food security is the foundation of a successful economy, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said during a ceremony held on 9 February to honor the best workers of the agricultural industry, BelTA has learned.
“Today, in this hall, we have gathered the people who devote all their energies to the land, by virtue of their profession or vocation. I want to sincerely thank all on behalf of the Belarusian people for the hard day-to-day work. All of you know that there is no easy bread. The past year was good for farmers, although the climatic conditions were difficult. However the weather often tests our farmers in our country. And again, you provided the country with bread and surpassed last year's results. For this we thank you deeply,” the head of state noted.
The president addressed special words of thanks to the harvest leaders. The highest yield was reported by OAO Gastellovskoye, Minsk District (almost 100 centners/ha). The Kremko and Svisloch agricultural production cooperatives of Grodno District had the yield of over 96 centners per hectare.
The livestock industry also had some achievements last year. For the first time in the country's history, the average annual yield of milk reached 5,000kg. However, many farms beat this result long ago. The leaders are Molodovo-Agro (Ivanovo District), Viteks (Uzda District), Agrokombinat Snov (Nesvizh District) and Larinovka (Orsha District). They produce over 10,000kg of milk per cow per year.
“All this contributes to the solid raw material base for the processing industry. In 2017 the food production rose by more than 3%. This is a good addition to the high level that we already had. The leading regions are Brest, Minsk and Grodno accounting for over 60% of this volume,” the president said.
Alexander Lukashenko believes that it was important to solve the problem with harvest storage. The country has built enough vegetable storage facilities, thanks to which organic fresh fruits and vegetables are now available in retail almost till the new harvest season.
Written by belta.by
