The area of the second sowing is planned to be increased by 190.7 thousand hectares in the Volgograd region after the death of agricultural crops due to frosts, as reported by the TASS news agency citing Marina Morozova, the chairman of the region's agriculture committee.
"Due to the situation in the region, related to the arrival of a dangerous natural phenomenon - frosts, and the death of areas of agricultural crops, mainly winter grains, it is planned to increase the area of the second sowing by 190.7 thousand hectares," Morozova said.
According to the information from the agriculture committee of the Volgograd region, by May 24, sowing was carried out in the region on an area of 1.340 million hectares, which is almost 30 thousand hectares more than the last year's figure for the same date.
According to Morozova, the replacement sowing is planned to be carried out on the following areas: 48.3 thousand hectares - with spring grain crops (millet, sorghum, maize, buckwheat); 114.6 thousand hectares - with technical crops (sunflower, soybean, mustard); 27.8 thousand hectares - with forage crops (sudangrass). Farmers plan to use pasture lands for replacement sowing, where the soil moisture exceeds 100 mm per meter and 10 mm in the sowing layer, which allows for the cultivation of agricultural crops. The agrotechnical season allows planting late spring crops until the beginning of June.
Earlier it was reported that about 190 thousand hectares of agricultural crops were affected by May frosts in the Volgograd region, which is 5% of the planned sowing area for 2024.
Due to the May frosts, a state of emergency was introduced in the Volgograd region to support farmers. Frosts down to minus five degrees were recorded in some areas of the Volgograd region from May 4 to 5 and from May 9 to 14, which led to partial damage to agricultural crops. The head of the Zhirnovsky district of the Volgograd region, Alexander Shevchenko, reported that a third of the winter grain crops perished due to the May frosts.