Previously Akhmetov reported that Tatarstan gross grain harvest this year will be significantly below last year. The main reason for the decline in grain harvest in the Republic is the drought affecting several regions of the Volga region. In particular, according to the Minister, in Tatarstan, the drought was recorded in 17 districts, which received less than 70 millimetres of rain in mean annual values of 170 mm.

By the end of 2017, the farmers of the Republic received the highest over the last 7 years grain crop of 5.2 million tons with an average yield of 34.2 kg per hectare.

"And the Ministry of agriculture and the whole agro-industrial team have set ourselves the task this year to repeat the record result of the past year in agriculture. But nature has made the amendments... we Have today, 3.7 million tons the gross grain harvest, more than 50 thousand hectares of corn. Considering harvesting corn for grain we have 3.9 million tonnes expected gross grain harvest", — said Akhmetov at a briefing in the government of the Republic.

The Minister noted that in the Republic since 2010, sufficient experience achieve good results in agriculture even in drought years. This year, he said, the whole vegetation period (April to July) had only half of the mean annual amount of precipitation. "Of course, under such circumstances, to expect 5 million tons of grain was impossible, although we all processing methods have tried to carry out timely and qualitatively," he said.

While Akhmetov said that this year the grain is very high quality – for standard of moisture content of 13.5%, it was received with a moisture content of 10-12%, therefore, the scoring weight will be much higher than expected. Besides, according to him, this year there is quite a good price for grain on the market. The leader in the gross grain harvest in the Republic this year is Aktanyshsky district – 151 thousand tons.

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