MOSCOW (Reuters) -Omsk, one of Siberia’s key grain-producing regions, declared a state of emergency due to the impact of early snowfall on crops, regional governor Vitaly Khotsenko said on messaging app Telegram on Tuesday.
Last year’s severe weather conditions destroyed a significant portion of Russian crops across the country.
This year, problems have also arisen in a number of regions, including in the south of the country and in Siberia. The state of emergency allows farmers to receive insurance payments.
“We are continuing the harvesting campaign. During the meeting, a decision was made to declare a state of emergency throughout the region so that farmers would be able to contact insurance companies,” Khotsenko said after a meeting on the harvesting campaign.
Earlier this year, soil waterlogging and early snowfall prompted authorities to declare a state of emergency in 16 districts of the region and it remains in effect in three districts. Crops covering the area of 420,000 hectares remain under snow, the governor said.
The grain and legume harvest in the Omsk region amounted to 3.8 million tons in 2024, ranking 12th in the country in terms of volume.
As of Tuesday, more than 3.4 million tons of grain have already been harvested in the region.
High yields in Siberia have been one of the main reasons for analysts raising harvest forecasts in recent months.
(Reporting by Olga Popova; Editing by Susan Fenton)
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