Lukashenko compared harvest of domestic and imported corn varieties in Shklov District

President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko is making a working trip to the Shklov District of the Mogilev Region

First of all, the Head of State visited the Alexandriyskoye JSC cornfield, where he was reported on the yield of corn for grain of domestic and foreign varieties.

To assess the biological yield of corn for grain of hybrids of Belarusian and foreign breeding, demonstration and production experiments were carried out at Alexandriyskoye JSC. During the experiments, 12 hybrids were cultivated, of which 6 were domestic and 6 were foreign.

Leonid Shimansky, the Director of the Polesie Institute of Crop Production, reported on the results of the experiment: a number of varieties of domestic breeding produce results no worse than those imported. At the same time, scientists note a vital nuance: foreign varieties are primarily intended for growing grain, while domestic breeders have always mainly worked on silage varieties. Leonid Shimansky noted that progress in selection does not stand still either in Belarus or in the West, and the productivity of hybrids has increased by a quarter over the past decade.

At the same time, Western companies are focusing on grain hybrids.

“Today we compete with more than 30 foreign corn breeding companies. There is no such competition for any other crop. I think we will keep this level,” the scientist assured.

Meanwhile, according to farmers, in terms of maturity, foreign varieties are early. In particular, this corn variety has been completely harvested from the presidential field at Alexandriyskoye JSC. As far as yield is concerned, although Belarusian varieties give good results, sometimes they are behind those imported.

Sergei Bartosh, the Chairman of the Shklov District Executive Committee, former Agriculture and Food Minister, also expressed his opinion, “There’re enough seeds [of Belarusian selection] at the farms of the average level. Imported varieties should be purchased only by those farms that receive a harvest of 150-160kg/ha.”

Thus, most of the country’s agricultural enterprises can quite successfully work with domestic hybrids, especially when it comes to harvesting corn for silage. Anyway, if the technology is strictly observed, it is also possible to get a high grain yield.

“The corn is not bad, but we are lagging behind the West... If you are 20 percent behind [in terms of crop yield], this is a lot,” the Belarusian leader underlined.

At the same time, Aleksandr Lukashenko warned scientists, “There should be no whitewash and certainly of easy success. Why should we cultivate something that does not benefit us? We need high-yielding good varieties… The results should be summed up very seriously in agriculture, especially for these varieties. We’re not doing well yet. It turns out that imported varieties are good, while domestically-bred lag behind, taking into account the attention we pay to scientific area.

photo: www.president.gov.by