Ukraine’s agriculture minister breaks old habits of predecessors

Agriculture is perhaps the last leg on which Ukraine’s economy has left to stand after Russia’s war in eastern Donbas disrupted the metals and mining industry, prompting a 17 and 22 percent drop in steel and coal production, respectively, last year.

Fortunately for Agriculture Minister Oleksiy Pavlenko, Ukraine already is a leading grower of sunflower, corn, wheat and barley. It just needs more working capital and cheaper financing to double harvests to 100 million tons in four years on the 32.5 million hectares available for crop production.