Photo of the Day for May 26, 2011

Vasil Pjetrusjevich, tired but satisfied after working with his wife and his father to plant potatoes in his mother-in-law’s plot a couple of kilometers outside the village.  Potatoes form a central part of the Belarusian diet.  It is thus crucial to finish planting in time to ensure a good harvest in the relatively short growing season in Belarus.  Adding to the stress is the fact that people have only the weekends to plant.  As a holdover from the Soviet regime, there is no private ownership of agricultural land in Belarus.  People in the villages are dependent on the collective farms to assign plots; the collective farms assign plots arbitrarily, often on marginal land, and in some villages almost too late to allow successful planting.

Посьпех: пасьля засажваньня бульбамі.

Tsjerablichy, May 2011.  Цераблічы 2011 год.

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