Abnormal heat speeds up harvesting in Kazakhstan

Tengrinews.kz — The hot summer has made adjustments to the work schedule of Kazakhstan’s farmers. Due to high temperatures, grain crops ripened earlier than usual, and combines are already working actively in the fields, according to KTK.
According to the TV channel, by Monday evening more than 15 percent of the country’s sown area had been harvested.

“As of today, 2.6 million hectares have been harvested. A total of 3.8 million tonnes of grain has been collected. Overall, the dynamics are very good compared with last year. Yields are roughly the same and comparable. The difference is in the harvested area: this year it is 2.6 million hectares, compared with 1.3 million last year. So the pace is twice as high,” said Zhandaulet Zhanbyrbayev, acting director of the Agriculture Department at the Ministry of Agriculture.

Nearly half of the harvested grain meets third-class quality standards, meaning it is suitable for processing. In agriculture, this is considered a fairly good result, the report noted.
Farmers are not yet rushing to harvest oilseed crops, as they ripen later than grain. According to the plan, combines will begin harvesting them toward the end of September.
The regions have been allocated 400,000 tonnes of diesel fuel for field work. One litre costs agricultural producers between 305 and 310 tenge, which is 10 percent below the market price.