Moscow | Reuters — Russia’s Kursk region has introduced emergency measures due to a drought which killed winter grain crops, the local government said on Thursday.
The measures will enable affected farmers to seek compensation. Kursk is Russia’s seventh largest grain producing region. It has also suffered from a major Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s territory, which started on Aug. 6.
Russia Agriculture Minister Oksana Lut said on Oct. 7 that the country’s grain harvest would be hit by the impact of Ukraine’s attacks on grain-producing regions close to the border and by bad weather in many other regions.
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Kursk Governor Alexei Smirnov said in September that, after the incursion, the harvesting of grains could not be completed on an area of 160,000 hectares. He estimated the damage at almost $1 billion (C$1.4 billion).
The Russian National Union of Agricultural Insurers reported in early October that in 2024 there were 29 weather-related emergencies that resulted in crop damage recorded in 26 regions of the country, a 45 per cent increase compared to last year.
Russia plans to harvest 130 million tons of grain, down from an earlier forecast of 132 million tons. The new estimate is a an 12 per cent drop from 148 million tons in 2023 and a 18 per cent drop from a record 158 million tons in 2022.
— Reporting for Reuters by Olga Popova
