Harvest of grain and oilseeds in Ukraine in 2022 may be half as many as last year – APK-Inform

Production of grains and oilseeds in 2022 in Ukraine is preliminary estimated at 53.3 million tonnes, which is 51% lower than the previous season's record, due to the Russian military invasion and ongoing hostilities, this year's harvest may be minimum for the last 10-15 years.

"We estimate total production of grains and oilseeds in 2022 at 53.3 million tonnes, which is 51% lower than the record figure of the previous season. At the same time, for grains, the harvest may be the lowest over the past 15 years, and for oilseeds – over the last decade," such harvest estimates are given on the website of the APK-Inform agency on Thursday.

The organization clarified that for the 2022 harvest, the area under winter grain crops decreased by 7% compared to last year, to 7.6 million hectares, which practically coincides with the figure for 2020. At the same time, the area under spring grain and leguminous crops, the sowing of which began this month, due to the occupation of part of the territories and hostilities by Russian invaders, can be reduced much more significantly – by 39%, to 4.7 million hectares.

In turn, the total area sown with oilseeds in Ukraine in 2022 may be about 6.8-6.9 million hectares, taking into account the areas already sown under winter rapeseed.

At the same time, a change in the structure of oilseed crops is expected. In particular, the share of sunflower acreage is projected to decrease from 73% in 2021 to 61% in 2022, while the share of rapeseed will increase from 12% to 21%, and soybean from 15% to 17%.

It is specified that as a result of hostilities, the sowing campaign in nine regions of the country looks very dangerous: Chernihiv, Sumy, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Kherson and Mykolaiv. Partially risky areas for sowing are currently noted in Zhytomyr, Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

The agency emphasized that in addition to a decrease in the area under crops, a general decrease in crop yields is expected in Ukraine due to the limited access of farmers to the necessary resources, such as fuel, fertilizers, plant protection products, etc. However, even the projected volumes of crop production are enough to meet the domestic food needs of Ukraine.

As reported, as of March 25, Ukraine sowed 150,000 hectares of agricultural land in regions where there are no active hostilities against the Russian invaders.

Source: www.en.interfax.com.ua