The Agriculture Ministry chief has at the instruction of Tatarstan President held a phone conference with rural regions.

(Kazan, July 28, Tatar-inform, Irina Ignatieva). The Tatarstan deputy prime minister, agriculture minister Marat Akhmetov held a phone conference with municipal executives, participated by general directors of agricultural industrial companies and holdings, heads of agricultural entities, Agriculture Ministry officials and others.

M. Akhmetov summed up the results of the work done after the previous phone conference on July 14.

He said over 400 thousand hectares had been threshed, which was over 50 percent of the area to be harvested, while in the previous years agribusinessmen had harvested 1.6 to 1.7 million hectares. Less than 400 thousand tonnes of bread has this year been milled. The productivity is 9 centners per hectare.

The Agriculture Ministry chief in this connection set the task for the farmers to complete the grain harvest in July, since the bread crops had overripened. Grain humidity at the roots is less than 9 percent. Grain protein is being burned down by the sun. If the harvest schedule is protracted, the volume of laid in straw that is a valuable feed under the drought will be reduced.
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