Penza, 5 July 2011. PenzaNews. The Minister of Agriculture of the region Vladimir Volkov said during a briefing, that the arable land under spring crops was considerably increased, in this connection it is planned to get not less than 1.2 million tons of grain in the Penza region in 2011.

The minister noticed that in 2011 there are 1.2 million hectares areas under crops and half of them are under grain.

Vladimir Volkov said: "The number of areas under industrial crops and oil-bearing-crops has increased as they are the most profitable ones. Besides, the great attention is given to buckwheat and millet".

The minister added that the area of vegetables and potatoes has increased greatly this year that it gives the right to count on a good harvest in autumn.

The head of the department said: "According to our estimates, total croppage of potato will exceed 1.5 times the last year indicator, and we will get 3 times more vegetables".