A state of emergency will be introduced in Russia: 20 million tons of grain harvest are lost

The Russian Ministry of Agriculture plans to introduce a state of emergency (emergency situation) of federal significance: May frosts caused mass destruction of crops in the main black soil regions of the country.

Oksana Lut, head of the department, announced this on May 27. According to her, writes RIA Novosti, the duration of the emergency regime, which will allow agricultural enterprises to receive insurance compensation, “has not yet been determined.”

According to estimates of the Russian Grain Union, the spring frosts that affected crops in 23 constituent entities of the Russian Federation will deprive Russian farmers of 18 million tons of grain harvest: by the end of the year, harvests could amount to 129 million tons, although the initial forecast reached 142–147 million tons, writes The Moscow Times. The head of the RZS, Arkady Zlochevsky, said at a press conference on Monday:

“In total, 1.5 million hectares of crop areas were affected. We haven't had these late return frosts for more than 100 years. The losses are already quite significant. The frosts happened late, and there was practically no time left for reseeding. If reseeding takes place, this means late harvesting and depends on the conditions during harvesting, we may miss more, part of the harvest will go under the snow.”

According to RZS estimates, only 60% of the areas affected by bad weather are subject to replanting, that is, about 900 thousand hectares. A regional emergency regime due to frost has already been introduced in eight regions of Russia, including Lipetsk, Voronezh, Tambov, Volgograd and Oryol regions. Frosts also affected other large agricultural regions – from Kursk and Rostov to Saratov and Penza regions, but the most difficult situation is in the Voronezh and Volgograd regions, says Dmitry Rylko, general director of the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR).

According to the ICAR forecast, harvests of the main crop, wheat, may decrease to 81.5 million tons, which is almost 12 million tons lower than initial estimates. It is no longer possible to replant wheat, Rylko notes pessimistically.

The problem is not only the frosts, but also the fact that farmers sought to save on plant protection products – this led to a critical impact of bad weather on crops, notes Sovecon General Director Andrei Sizov. According to him, the consequence of the weather crisis will be a series of bankruptcies of agricultural producers, who have already been hit by export duties, and then the redistribution of land: “Russian farmers had a fairly large margin of safety, which was supported by the record harvests of the past two years, but the consequences of the introduction of duties are beginning to affect “

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