Preparations for field work are underway in the region: the readiness of equipment is being checked, the state of winter crops is being monitored, and the structure of sown areas is being specified.
Last autumn, due to rains, winter crops were planted on 266,000 hectares. In this regard, in the spring of this year, the structure of sown areas of agricultural crops for the harvest of 2023 will change. At the moment, it is formed as follows: the total area under agricultural crops in farms of all categories will be 1.4 million hectares.
490 thousand hectares are allocated for spring grain and leguminous crops. “This is 35,000 hectares more than a year earlier,” said Oleg Dolgikh, head of the Lipetsk Oblast Department of Agriculture. – New varieties of spring grain crops are not much inferior in terms of yield to winter crops. This will compensate for their shortfall.” At the same time, the areas under spring wheat and barley will increase by 7%, but less corn will be sown for grain. In 2023, it is planned to pay special attention to such a promising crop as peas. The area under it will grow by 2.4 times. In general, 2.1 times more leguminous crops will be sown than in 2022.
It is planned to significantly increase the area of almost all the main crops of the technical group. This is dictated by the increase in demand for these products. Agricultural crops of this group will be placed on 536 thousand hectares. This is almost 30 thousand hectares more than the previous period. Sugar beet and sunflower crops will increase by 7%. The area under soybeans will increase by 11%.
The area under open ground potatoes and vegetables will remain at the level of 2022: potatoes are planned to be planted on 24 thousand hectares, open ground vegetables – on 5.6 thousand hectares. Forage crops will be sown on 60,000 hectares, which also corresponds to last year’s level.
