September 21, 2011

Ukraine intends to increase corn cultivation in 2012

Ukraine is intending to raise corn cultivation by 11% or 0.4 million hectares to four million hectares next year in contrast to this year.

Oleksandr Demydov, the director of the department of agriculture at the Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food said that they no longer plan to plant 3.6 million hectares of corn but to increase it to 4 million hectares

Demydov said that corn is one of the most profitable agricultural crops and that it has a profitability of around 25%.

According to Demydov, the area of winter grain crops (sown in autumn this year) for harvest in 2012 increased by 200,000 hectares.

Plans to increase the area of spring crops (sown in spring next year), particularly sugar beet to 600,000 hectares, as well as the area under soy cultivation are also being considered.

The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food expects 17-18 million tonnes of corn to be harvested in 2011, according to Ukrainian news.