Grain harvest at 99% stage in Zaghouan governorate

Zaghouan: The grain harvest is drawing to a close in the governorate of Zaghouan, where it has reached a 99% progress rate as of July 15, i.e. 63,000 hectares of sown land in the region have been harvested, said Regional Agricultural Development Commissioner Fayçel Gota.The harvest season has been good in the region with no fires reported, which has helped collect 256,000 quintals of grain so far, he told TAP.The harvested quantities include 195,000 quintals of durum wheat, 51,000 quintals of barley, 8,000 quintals of common wheat and 1,600 quintals of triticale.A total of 85,000 quintals of cereals have been stored and transferred to the storage centres of the Office des Céréales, the same source said, adding that a barley stock of around 39,000 quintals has been stored in the region and is reserved for the previous season.He pointed out that the regional committee to approve the reconstitution of the region's barley reserve stock had managed to sort out about 39,000 quintals of this barley with good germination to be used in the next sowing season and avoid the shortage of seeds of this type of grain as had happened last season.Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse