Drought costs Russia’s grain industry over US$1 billion

These figures were recently presented at a conference focusing on measures to assist farmers affected by the drought and the loss of part of the 2012 harvest.

In addition, the loss of agricultural crops, according to the operative data has been recorded in 21 regions of the Russian Federation. More than 5.56 million hectares (7.3% of the total sown area) of crops lost.

As of August 13, this year, a the state of emergency of regional character was declared, due to the loss of crops in 17 regions. Ten regions approached the government to request the re-allocation of funds from the federal budget to the regional budget to support the affected agricultural producers.

According to the latest report from Russia’s Ministry of Agriculture, the current harvest total of grain and leguminous crops stands at 44.8 million tonnes compared to 48.5 million tonnes for the same period last year. Yield level stands at 20.3 metric centner /ha (in 2011 – 28.1 metric centner / ha).

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the 2012 wheat area sown was 24.6 mln ha, of that 12.8 mln ha (or 52%) has already been harvested – giving a yield of 27.9 mln tonnes. In 2011 the wheat yield was 33.6 mln tonnes.

For barley the 2012 area sown was 8.94 mln ha, of that 5.1 mln ha (or 57%) has already been harvested – giving a yield of 9.7 mln tonnes. In 2011 the barley yield was 8.8 mln tonnes.

Winter crops of grain and forage, for harvest in 2013, have been sown on an area of 83.3 thousand ha, which is slightly lower than the same period last year (84.7 ha).