Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ordered the country's agroindustrial complex to adopt a "military approach" to the harvest of crops Tuesday, Interfax reported.
"Everyone needs to be on a war footing, especially for the harvest of crops," Lukashenko said during a visit to the Smolevichsky district of the Minsk region on Tuesday, the news agency reported. "What we lose, we cannot take. This also applies to fodder. Everyone needs to be mobilized!"
Lukashenko added that "iron discipline" was needed to prevent losses in the country's agricultural industry, noting that the country lost 7 trillion Belarusian rubles ($700 million) in the dairy industry last year, Interfax reported.
Agriculture and industry are central to the Belarusian economy, accounting for more than 40 percent of the country's GDP in 2012, according to Belarus' official statistics. Nearly 10 percent of Belarus' labor force was employed in the agricultural field in 2013.
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