Drought forces Russia's Voronezh region to declare farming emergency

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Voronezh region, one of the country's key farming areas for grain and sugar beet, on Tuesday declared a state of emergency due to drought, the local agriculture ministry said.

Voronezh was Russia's fifth-largest grain-producing region in 2023, with a harvest of over 6 million metric tons, 4% of the nationwide total.

This year, the region expects a harvest of 4.5-5.0 million tons. It declared a previous emergency - a measure that allows farmers to obtain insurance payments and government support - after frosts in May.

Russia, the world's biggest wheat exporter, has so far stuck to its official grain harvest forecast of 132 million tons despite extreme weather hitting many of its key grain-producing regions this year. That compares with 148 million tons in 2023 and a record 158 million tons in 2022.

(Reporting by Olga Popova; Writing by Maxim Rodionov; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)