The government declared a state of emergency in six more crop-producing regions on Tuesday because of the worst drought in at least a decade, bringing the total to 23.?
Farmers harvested 17 percent of grain crops throughout the country as of Tuesday, reaping 21 million tons, or 715,300 metric tons more than at the same time last year, the Agriculture Ministry said in an e-mailed statement.?
Yields averaged 2.81 tons a hectare, down from 3.11 tons a hectare last year, it said.?
Farmers in the Southern Federal District harvested 47 percent of their planted areas, reaping 11.9 million tons of grain, it said. Yields averaged 3.66 tons a hectare, compared with 3.3 tons a hectare last year.?
The drought-hit Volga Federal District harvested 1.4 million tons of grain, the ministry said. Yields averaged 0.93 ton a hectare, compared with 1.26 tons last year. Regions in central Russia harvested 1 million tons of grain, with yields 29 percent lower at 2 tons a hectare.?
The wheat harvest stands at 15 million tons, with yields at 2.89 tons a hectare. The barley harvest came to 2.1 million tons, with yields averaging 3.24 tons a hectare.?
As Russia’s grain-growing heartland — its central regions and the Volga Federal District — suffer from “abnormal” temperatures as high as 37 degrees Celsius, officials are advising grain farmers in the central Oryol region to start harvesting at night to protect their combines against mechanical breakdowns in the daytime heat.?
Temperatures in central Russia will exceed the historical average by at least 4 C between July 20 and July 29, the Federal Hydrometeorological Service said.?
Farmers in Oryol, 380 kilometers south of Moscow, also must prevent fires from breaking out in their fields, the head of the regional agriculture department, Vladimir Koroteyev, said Monday in comments posted on the Oryol government’s web site.