Moscow , Russia ( CNN ) -- A quarter of Russian crops have been lost in the recent drought , leaving many farms on the brink of bankruptcy , Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday . The government should prevent increases in the price of grain and fodder , which will eventually affect the prices of food products like flour , bread , meat , and milk , Medvedev said at a government agriculture meeting in the southern Russian region of Rostov . `` Right now , everybody is of course thinking about it -- farmers as well as officials responsible for agriculture , '' Medvedev said in comments broadcast on Russian state television . `` But we also understand that regular people , too , are thinking about what will happen after this extremely tough summer , how it will affect the prices on staples food . '' He said government authorities should closely monitor food prices on a daily basis , `` otherwise there will always be someone who would want to capitalize on this situation . There are such cases already . '' Large parts of Russia have suffered this summer from excessive heat , drought , and a spate of wildfires that have also created stifling smoke and smog . Hundreds have died in the combined disasters . Alexander Frolov , who heads the Russian meteorological service Roshydromet , said this week that virtually no rain is forecast in Russia this month . The situation is so bad in some regions that there is `` no reason '' to start planting winter crops , Frolov said . Roshydromet forecasts a 30 percent drop in Russia 's harvests due to the drought , he said . Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has already announced a ban on grain exports that will begin August 15 and could last until December 31 , based on uncertainty over this year 's farm production . Some regions wo n't be sowing winter grain at all this year , he said . Thursday , Medvedev lifted the state of emergency in three of seven Russian regions most affected by wildfires . The Emergency Situations Ministry said the number of areas covered by the fires has decreased 25 percent in the past day . The fires burning in the remaining four regions of western and central Russia are still intense , however , with tens of thousands of firefighters deployed there . Medvedev ordered the Emergency Situations Ministry to take addition precautions to protect `` strategic sites '' from the fires . CNN 's Maxim Tkachenko and Matthew Chance contributed to this report .
Medvedev says crop losses will eventually affect the prices of flour , meat , and milk . A quarter of the nation 's crops have been lost , the Russian president says . Score: 6