Ukraine expects grain harvest of 48 million tonnes

The Ukraine Agricultural Policy Ministry is expecting a grain harvest of 48 million tonnes in 2010.

"The Grain Ukraine programme and the socioeconomic development programme are based on a grain harvest of around 48 million tonnes. This figure represents the forecast for the quantity that we want to receive," Deputy Agricultural Policy Minister Serhii Melnyk said.

He stressed that the size of the grain harvest will depend largely on natural and man-made factors.

According to him, the foundation laid for the 2010 grain harvest is not bad. In particular, he said that cultivation of winter crops increased by 200,000 hectares in 2010, compared with 2009, and farmers were provided with 100% of the seeds they needed for sowing spring crops.

At the same time, he expressed regret that the current paces of sowing of spring crops and application of fertilisers to winter crops are presently half the pace of last year.

Nonetheless, he expressed confidence that that the sowing of spring and winter crops would be balanced if necessary, so that there is no less than 15.6 million hectares of grain crops.

He noted that 46 million tonnes of grain was harvested in 2009.