Ukraine: Ukraine to plant more winter wheat and barley

Ukraine will expand areas under winter crops through increasing the production of winter wheat and barley, Ukrainian media quoted First Deputy Agrarian Policy and Food Minister Taras Vysotsky as saying at the Ukraine Media Center on October 25.

Farmers are continuing to sow winter crops, Vysotsky said. Weather has not always been favorable during the autumn sowing campaign, with numerous areas suffering from drought; however, most of the regions saw rains in mid-October, which gives grounds to expect that winter crops will emerge well, he said.

Ukrainian farmers have reduced areas under winter rapeseed by 10% to 100,000 hectares due to adverse weather, Vysotsky said. In particular, farmers in the Dnepropetrovsk region, a major winter rapeseed producer, were unable to sow rapeseed this autumn because of the drought, he said.

"As for winter wheat and barley, we see growth of around 10% in terms of the sowing pace compared to last year. They're both expanding the areas and sowing faster," he said.

As of the start of this week, Ukraine sowed 8% more winter wheat and barley than as of the same dates last year, he said.

Speaking of weather challenges, Vysotsky recalled that weather in November and December 2023 was mild enough to prompt winter crops to resume growth. This year, temperature is also expected to reach +18 to +20 degrees Celsius on some days, he said.

"By analogy with previous years, if we have lengthy periods of high temperatures, we can hope that this would minimize the effect of weather risks and we'll have a good result [...] Risks do exist. Farmers are sowing more than last year. We'll assess the result in March. But we hope it's going to be positive," he said.