February 28, 2013

Ukraine winter grain crops affected by drought

Ukraine has witnessed up to 800,000 damaged hectares of winter grain crops due to severe weather conditions, according to representatives of the country's Ministry of Agriculture.

"Drought in autumn and a freezing winter have damaged crops in the Crimea, Sumy, Chernihiv and Kherson regions," Tetyana Adamenko, head of the state weather forecasting centre's agriculture department, reported.

"Two thirds of the crops killed were winter barley and one third is winter wheat," she said. Winter wheat accounts for about 95% of Ukraine's total wheat planting area. A senior agriculture ministry official said last week that no more than 400,000 hectares of winter grain crops, or up to 5% of the sown area, were likely to be reseeded this spring against 1.5 million hectares in 2012.

The ministry said that it expected a decrease in the 2013 spring barley area to 2.29 million hectares from 2.73 million hectares a year earlier. Ukraine is likely to reduce the area sown for corn to 4.46 million hectares this year from 4.72 million hectares in 2012.