Russia: Animal feed demand spurs corn planting increase
Russia plans to boost the territory for corn planting by 20% compared to the current volume in order to meet the growing demand of the country’s livestock businesses feed needs, according to the Russian Minister of Agriculture Nikolai Fedorov.
Also instead of the initially planned 16 million hectares of winter crops for harvest in 2014 Minister of Agriculture predicts about 13 million hectares will be planted due to adverse weather conditions.
In the spring of 2014 for this reason it is necessary to increase the area under spring sowing by a comparable amount, the minister said. In addition the Minister of Agriculture urges farmers to plant more corn for grain in 2014.
“We will not, of course, plant the whole country with corn, but it’s much more productive and useful and it [increased territory for corn planting] will let us boost the productivity of livestock businesses,” said Fedorov.
The Agriculture Minister estimates that the area for corn planting next year should grow by 20% compared to the current rate, which will allow a decrease in the volume of wheat used in feed and improve the situation with feed prices.
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