Workers from China will not be able to come to fieldwork in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast (JAO) this year because of the coronavirus. Instead, migrants from Uzbekistan will be attracted, the regional government reports. 

Graduates of agriculture universities of the republic will also join them.

“The JAO planned to attract 1,323 people from the PRC for fieldwork in spring. Because of the quarantine, quotas for attracting foreign labor forces will not be in demand,” the report reads.

According to the interim governor of the Oblast Rostislav Goldshtein, this year sowing will be held in difficult conditions. In addition to the situation with the closure of borders due to the coronavirus, the region needs to resolve the issue regarding the consequences of the floods in 2019, due to which the autumn fieldwork was not completed in the planned agro-technical mode.

The total sown area of agricultural crops in the region will be 166,000 hectares, of which 150,000 are allocated for soy production.