Collective farms forbidden to use contaminated fields but they do it anyway
6 hectares of land considered to be contaminated with radioactive nuclides were used to cultivate feed crops in Homel Region last year. The head specialist of the Homel Region Executive Committee’s department on agriculture and nutrition Uladzіmіr Rahavenka thinks it is not much.
Two collective farms from Brahin and Hoiniki Districts have started using hundreds of hectares of contaminated land this year.
Heads of three collective farms decided not to waste their energies. It was proposed to start using 1484 hectares of land in Brahin District and 565 hectares in Hoiniki District.
The Ministry of Agriculture and the committee on liquidation of consequences of Chernobyl disaster did not agree to the idea. A member of the department Henadz Antsipau considers it to be a philosophical issue.
Henadz Antsipau: “It is never late or early to raise this question because it is only a question which cannot solve the problem. They can only answer – yes on no. And it is necessary to decide when you can start using the land if it’s allowed.
There are some principles to use here. People perceive information the way they are able to understand it. Those collective farms decided they could use the land. It is their right. But specialists think different”.
Still, the official refused to tell us to what extent the land was contaminated.
The head specialist of the Homel Region Executive Committee’s department on agriculture and nutrition Uladzіmіr Rahavenka understands their desire to use the abandoned land. In the past it was very good and collective farms gathered good crops there. He understands why they were not allowed to do it too.
Uladzіmіr Rahavenka: “There is a reason for the refusal. We have a special service that checked plants and soil there. Experts from the Ministries of agriculture and nutrition, health care and Chernobyl decided that the land could not be used for agriculture because it was contaminated with radioactive nuclides”.
But it does not mean that the dangerous land is not used in any way. They don’t grow potatoes or crops there but they use it to graze cows and make hay.
The collective farm “Barysaushchyna” (Hoiniki District) does like that. This collective farm asked for permission to use 565 hectares of contaminated land and got a refusal. But the head of the collective farm Alyaksandr Varabei was not upset.
Alyaksandr Varabei: “We use all our land. The only thing is that that we use contaminated lands as pastures and for haymaking.
The thing is that meat-packing plants always check all meat for radioactive nuclides and contaminated meat cannot get there. We also check our fodder so that the level of contamination would not exceed the norm. We do not send contaminated animals there”.
But the assurance of the head of the collective farm isn’t enough to understand why specialists forbid using the land.
Photo by photo.bymedia.net
Two collective farms from Brahin and Hoiniki Districts have started using hundreds of hectares of contaminated land this year.
Heads of three collective farms decided not to waste their energies. It was proposed to start using 1484 hectares of land in Brahin District and 565 hectares in Hoiniki District.
The Ministry of Agriculture and the committee on liquidation of consequences of Chernobyl disaster did not agree to the idea. A member of the department Henadz Antsipau considers it to be a philosophical issue.
Henadz Antsipau: “It is never late or early to raise this question because it is only a question which cannot solve the problem. They can only answer – yes on no. And it is necessary to decide when you can start using the land if it’s allowed.
There are some principles to use here. People perceive information the way they are able to understand it. Those collective farms decided they could use the land. It is their right. But specialists think different”.
Still, the official refused to tell us to what extent the land was contaminated.
The head specialist of the Homel Region Executive Committee’s department on agriculture and nutrition Uladzіmіr Rahavenka understands their desire to use the abandoned land. In the past it was very good and collective farms gathered good crops there. He understands why they were not allowed to do it too.
Uladzіmіr Rahavenka: “There is a reason for the refusal. We have a special service that checked plants and soil there. Experts from the Ministries of agriculture and nutrition, health care and Chernobyl decided that the land could not be used for agriculture because it was contaminated with radioactive nuclides”.
But it does not mean that the dangerous land is not used in any way. They don’t grow potatoes or crops there but they use it to graze cows and make hay.
The collective farm “Barysaushchyna” (Hoiniki District) does like that. This collective farm asked for permission to use 565 hectares of contaminated land and got a refusal. But the head of the collective farm Alyaksandr Varabei was not upset.
Alyaksandr Varabei: “We use all our land. The only thing is that that we use contaminated lands as pastures and for haymaking.
The thing is that meat-packing plants always check all meat for radioactive nuclides and contaminated meat cannot get there. We also check our fodder so that the level of contamination would not exceed the norm. We do not send contaminated animals there”.
But the assurance of the head of the collective farm isn’t enough to understand why specialists forbid using the land.
Photo by photo.bymedia.net
