The sowing campaign amid quarantine started quite well in all regions of Ukraine, the pace is approximately the same as in 2019, with a slight advance due to early spring, Director General of UkrAgroConsult consulting agency Serhiy Feofilov has said.
“The import component in sowing resource is still very high. Nevertheless, the main material and technical resources were imported into Ukraine and purchased by farms before the quarantine and the devaluation. The negative impact on cost of production is still minimal,” the agency said on UkrAgroConsult’s website, citing Feofilov.
Feofilov said that it is a positive point in the fact that corn seeds are mainly produced at Ukrainian seed plants, only parental forms are imported. The expansion of spring grain will be precisely due to corn. The situation with plant protection is almost the same, namely all needed is imported, except that the line of products will decrease against expectations, the top manager said.
“The situation is contradictory in terms of fuel. Fuel supply is sufficient and the main intrigue is the price level. On the one hand, we can expect it to decline after the oil falls. On the other hand, fuel sellers tend to price stabilization, given hryvnia devaluation and a possible reduction in supplies,” the director general of UkrAgroConsult said.
Ukrainian agrarians as of November 5 had sowed 7 million hectares with winter grains with the projected area being 7.2 million hectares for the 2019 harvest.
According to a report on the website of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, 6 million hectares of the area were sown with winter wheat, with the forecast being 6.2 million hectares, 120,000 hectares with rye with the forecast standing at 150,000 hectare, and 870,000 hectares with winter barley with the forecast being 870,000 hectares.
In addition, one million hectares were sown with winter rapeseeds, with a forecast of 890,000 hectares.
“We are reaching the projected result of 7.2 million hectares under winter crops for grain. As of November 5, about 150,000 hectares more were sown than on the same date last year,” First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Maksym Martyniuk said on Facebook.
According to him, the work was carried out within the best terms, the level of soil moisture was sufficient both for sowing and to ensure the best conditions for growth and development.
“The availability of material and technical resources was at the level or above the need. The availability of mineral fertilizers for the autumn field work amounted to 776,000 tonnes or 108% of the application, in particular phosphate fertilizers amounted to 207,000 tonnes (109% of the need),” Martyniuk reported.
