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Lukashenka: If it had not been for agricultural toilers’ heroism, Belarus would have been on its knees

If it had not been for the agricultural toilers’ heroism, the nation would have been on its knees, Alyaksandr Lukashenka said while speaking at an end-of-harvest festival, Dazhynki 2007, in Rechytsa, Homyel region, on September 22.

“The present achievement of the grain growers is especially important for our country, as they laid down a firm foundation for the food security of the state and the satisfaction of the needs of our population for foodstuffs at popular and stable prices,” the Belarusian leader said.

According to Mr. Lukashenka, this year’s grain harvest totaled almost 7.5 million tons, with an average-per-hectare yield being 3.1 tons. Last year's harvest reportedly totaled 5.9 million tons, whereas 6.9 million had been projected.

“Despite difficult conditions, we’ve managed to supply ourselves with our own grain and thereby reduced to the minimum the consequences of the rise in the world’s grain prices for our economy,” Mr. Lukashenka said, noting that grain had doubled in price in the world market since the beginning of the year.

“Nobody has grain now, neither Ukraine, nor Moldova, nor Russia,” the Belarusian leader claimed. “Speaking in a simple, peasant manner, God saved us this year.”

He stressed that the government had chosen the right policy regarding the agricultural sector. “We didn’t obey the foreign and home-bred ‘well-wishers’ who advised us not to invest funds in the domestic agricultural sector but to use them for purchasing grain abroad,” he said.

The sector has been brought to a qualitatively new level, Mr. Lukashenka noted. “Our agricultural scientists do much work to create the necessary range of agricultural crops, which, potentially, are not inferior to the best samples in the world,” he said. “Advanced plant-growing, animal-breeding and processing technologies are being developed and introduced.”

According to Mr. Lukashenka, since 2005, the agricultural sector received 5,250 grain and forage harvesters, 3,345 powerful tractors, 3,500 trucks, 1,233 soil treatment and sowing machines, and more than 15,000 other farm machines.

Mr. Lukashenka denied allegations that agricultural statistics are falsified. “The opposition says that Lukashenka compels people to engage in distortions.... This is a mere fantasy. These people have broken away from reality,” he said. “On the contrary, we say show what you’ve thrashed. We’ve introduced criminal penalties for distortions.”

The head of state suggested that all agricultural enterprises in the country should become self-sufficient and profitable within two or three years. He noted that the government would only support potentially highly efficient enterprises. A poor harvest cannot be justified by the weather’s caprices, he said.