19 May 2004 17:48
Successes reported in agriculture sector in Chechnya
Moscow, 19 May: The sowing campaign has practically ended on the flatland districts in Chechnya. The amount of land
sown with grain crops has been increased to 220,000 ha.
"We are now embarking on agricultural work in the foothill and mountainous districts of the republic. We plan to
obtain a grain harvest equal to the one that was obtained in 2002, the highest on record (over 20 qu/ha) in recent
time," the republican Agriculture Ministry has reported to ITAR-TASS.
The agency's sources noted that in the space of four years they have succeeded in increasing areas sown to crops
in the republic from 70,000 ha to 220-230,000 ha with an overall area of 315,000 ha of ploughed land.
"While things in the republic are not bad as regards the grain harvest, many problems are arising with fruit and
vegetable products. The republic has virtually been deprived of a processing industry, which we are now starting to
restore," people in the ministry reported.
"The agriculture sector in Chechnya comprises over 150 state farms and 340 enterprises of the agro-industrial
complex. Up to 60 per cent of the entire able-bodied population in Chechnya is employed by them. With corresponding
financial support, the sector can supply jobs for an even bigger number of the republic's inhabitants while we will
be able to send agricultural output to neighbouring regions in southern Russia," sources in the Chechen Agriculture
Ministry noted.
[ITAR-TASS news agency] |
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