In 2024, for the first time, the total rapeseed harvest exceeded one million tons after the improvement of technologies. According to information provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, the production of this agricultural crop has almost doubled over the past five years.
Several factors have influenced this, noted the head of the oilseed department of the State Scientific Institution "Scientific and Practical Center of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus for Agriculture" Yadviga Pilyuk:
— The winter hardiness of this crop has improved, especially in the northern part of the country. As a result, the area of rapeseed sowing has stabilized at 400 thousand hectares. Plant nutrition has improved. On average, in 2019, a hectare of rapeseed received 243 kilograms of NPK, and in 2024, it was already more than 330 kilograms. Plant protection has also improved. All parameters of the technology of growing this crop have significantly advanced.
In 2019, the average rapeseed yield across the country was only 16.8 hundredweight per hectare, and last year it was already 24.8 hundredweight. At the same time, in some farms, this indicator significantly exceeds the average value. One of the highest achievements in this area was recorded at the agricultural production cooperative named after Dentshikov in the Grodno region, where the rapeseed yield amounted to more than 67 hundredweight per hectare.