RUSSIA: RUSSIA'S TATARSTAN SEEN LOSING HALF OF GRAIN HARVEST TO DROUGHT

Russia’s Tatarstan Seen Losing Half of Grain Harvest to Drought

By Marina Sysoyeva - Jul 16, 2013 3:24 AM PT


Russia’s Tatarstan Republic, the country’s fifth largest grain-growing region, will lose half of the 5 million metric ton grain crop it expected this season due to drought, a private farmers union said.

A state of emergency has been declared in the republic because of drought in 22 of its 43 municipalities, according to the regional Agriculture Ministry. Tatarstan’s crop may reach 2.5 million tons at best in the 2013-14 season which started July 1, Kamiyar Baitemirov, chairman of the regional branch of Russia’s Peasants and Farmers Association, known as AKKOR, said by phone today from Tatarstan’s capital, Kazan.

Drought has hit about 17 percent of all fields sown with cereals to date in Russia, with Tatarstan and other regions in the Volga Federal District the most affected, according to data from the country’s Agriculture Ministry. In the 2012-13 season, drought reduced Russia’s grain crop by a quarter.

“Last year, drought did not have such consequences as this year,” Baitemirov said. “This year, some municipal areas have not had any rain since early spring. We will lose half of the crop because of drought.”

Tatarstan along with other regions in the Volga Federal District is forecast to have 30 percent less rain than on average in July, according to the state weather center. Temperatures in Tatarstan as high as 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) together with a lack of rain made the drought expand in the first 10 days of July, according to the regional weather center data.

Tatarstan harvested about 3 million tons of grain last year, according to state statistics data. The Volga area accounted for about 21 percent of the 70.9 million tons of grains harvested in the country last year, according to government data.

AKKOR members include farmers’ associations representing more than 600 private farms and 1,500 agricultural cooperatives across Russia, which account for about 20 percent of the national grain crop, according to the union data.

To contact the reporter on this story: Marina Sysoyeva in Moscow at msysoyeva@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net