According to the latest information, about 10.5 million hectares have been sown in the Russian Federation to date, which is 1.3 million more than on April 25, 2024.
The end of April is a period of active sowing in almost the entire country, experts remind.
Sowing is currently underway in 56 regions. It is expected that this season the total sown area will increase by 1 million hectares, to 84 million, the Ministry of Agriculture notes.
This figure also takes into account new regions. Of this value, about 56 million hectares are allocated for spring crops, and 20 million hectares for winter crops.
As for individual crops, here we have the following distribution.
About 6.3 million hectares of spring grains have currently been sown, which is significantly more than a year ago: then this figure was 4.8 million. This proves that sowing is ahead of schedule.
In total, this year it is planned to sow about 30 million hectares of wheat, 7.5 million hectares of barley, and about 3 million hectares of corn.
As for oilseeds, their sown areas may grow to more than 20 million hectares. Half of them are sunflowers and a quarter are soybeans.
At the same time, analysts note that at present, farmers’ interest in grains is noticeably declining, while their motivation to grow oilseeds is increasing. This is explained by the fact that oilseeds provide much higher margins.
In addition, sugar beet sowing is currently underway in Russia. About 1 million hectares should be under this crop this season, and about 800 thousand of this area have already been sown.
Finally, about 290 thousand hectares are planned for vegetables this year, 190 thousand for potatoes. By now, about 50 thousand hectares have already been sown, which is also an early result.
In general, it is noted that such good results were possible not only due to favorable weather conditions that were established in most Russian regions in mid-spring, but also, no less importantly, due to the high readiness of the seed fund.
It is emphasized that by the end of March it was 99% complete, which allowed sowing to begin without delays.
Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin expects that the sowing will be successful: «And this is not only stable, sustainable development of the agro-industrial sector of the economy, but also, as a result, a wide choice of assortment and products for our citizens,» he noted, also emphasizing that agricultural producers are currently fully provided with everything necessary to complete spring field work successfully and on time.
