Drought and snow hamper grain harvest

Government officials announced on Friday that Kyrgyzstan’s 2000 harvest of 1.7 million mt would not meet its food needs this year, a Reuters report said. According to a government document, drought in the summer and early snowfall in many parts of the country had caused a shortfall of 190,000 mt of grain. Of the 1.7 million mt harvested, milling wheat would amount to just 735,700 mt instead of the 992,900 mt expected earlier. The report, however, added that the country of 4.8 million people had some 58,000 mt of grain reserves and an additional 60,000 mt had been received as humanitarian aid from the United States the report said. In other words, according to the agriculture ministry, 85 percent of the country’s needs have been assured.