Review of the harvest season 2021
25 November 2021 News from the Company
Ekosem-Agrar Group sums up the harvest season 2021. Various crops were grown on a total of 446,500 hectares, including cereals and legumes on an area of 173,500 hectares.
Despite unfavorable weather conditions in the spring and summer, the Ekosem-Agrar Group achieved good crop yields. The harvest volume of cereals amounted to over 386,000 tons. Crop yields of legumes increased significantly to over 28,000 tons. The average crop yield of peas grew by almost 40%.
"We sowed the peas at an optimal time. We also had favorable growing conditions for the early maturing plants. All crop protection measures were timely and properly applied," comments Aleksandr Anpilov, Head of Crop Farming at EkoNiva-APK Holding.
In recent years, the demand for lentils has increased both on the domestic and world markets. In 2021, the company expanded the area under this crop to 13,500 hectares compared to 2,000 hectares in the previous year, resulting in a rich harvest of 17,400 tons. Agreements have been reached to supply lentils to Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, and negotiations are still underway with partners from Egypt and the EU.
Thanks to the very good harvest results for fodder crops, all dairy cow facilities of Ekosem-Agrar Group are fully supplied with fodder for the 2021/22 agricultural year. The surplus forage, especially in the Kaluga and Moscow regions, might be sold to external customers.
"Flexible crop rotation, proper distribution of cultivated areas taking into account weather conditions in different regions, joint efforts of our specialists and digitalization of production processes have made this achievement possible," explains Ramon Schenk, Deputy Production Manager at EkoNiva-APK Holding.
Eko.Crop, the in-house software solution for agronomists, has been used intensively in all Ekosem-Agrar Group farms since 2020. With the help of the software, modern agricultural machinery and smart farming systems, crop production has become even gentler and more cost-efficient.
In 2022, the Group intends to increase the cultivated area up to 463,800 hectares by the recultivation of fallow land. The plan is to provide 24% more land for cereals and 8.5% more arable land for legumes.