Fights against occupiers, mined fields, shortage of workers, fuel, spare parts and fertilizers. Will the sowing campaign take place in 2022 in Ukraine?
«No matter what happens, this spring, like any other spring, a full-fledged sowing campaign must be held throughout our land. As much as possible. Because it's about life. About our life. About our dreams. About our dream. About our future. And that means about our victory,» President Zelensky said on March 11 in his next video message, reports the Chronicle.info with reference to Focus.
Indeed, the fate of the sowing campaign and, consequently, the food security of Ukraine, is being decided in the next few weeks. However, success is in doubt.
«Regions engulfed by the war are now dropping out of agricultural production, — says Maria Kolesnik, Deputy Director of «ProAgro Group». — Fighting continues in part of the territory of Ukraine, the fields are mined, and even in those regions where there are no active hostilities, agricultural producers suffer from a lack of resources to start the sowing campaign — fuel, spare parts for agricultural equipment and labor due to the outflow of people into the ranks of the armed forces and Terodefense» .
According to Galina Vertsimakha, an expert of the «Antitrust League», the field work was to start in the first ten days of March and end in the last week of April. However, the most productive agricultural regions are under constant shelling, which makes field work in Chernihiv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Sumy, Zhytomyr and Kherson regions impossible.
It should be noted that before the war with Russia, winter crops were sown on an area of 7.7 million hectares in Ukraine — wheat, rye, barley and rapeseed. These crops overwintered well due to the optimal temperature regime and sufficient soil moisture. «However, now farmers need to apply fertilizers to feed winter crops, which is possible only in territories where hostilities are not taking place, — says Galina Vertsimakha. — If fertilizer is not applied now, winter wheat yields in Ukraine could fall by 15% compared to previous years, and some farmers warn that the situation could be much worse».
Maria Kolesnik advises the government < strong>immediately pay attention to the problem and quickly develop a conditional «Marshall plan» for the agricultural sector.
«In the event of an optimistic scenario and the end of the war within a month, Ukraine needs to accumulate resources — fuel, fertilizers, labor and send them to the sowing in the regions who were not affected by the war, Kolesnik clarifies. — At the same time, it is necessary to organize a quick demining of fields with the involvement of not only Ukrainian, but also Western specialists. This will make it possible to get a harvest in 2022, at least at the same level as five years ago».
To clarify, Ukraine in 2021 harvested a record harvest of grains and legumes — 84 million tons. For comparison, 64.2 million tons were harvested in 2016.
Problems of the agricultural sector were not left without attention. The Cabinet of Ministers has already informed about the launch of a platform to help farmers in conducting the sowing campaign agrostatus.org, where agricultural producers can register and fill out an application indicating their needs. In response, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy promises to contact and provide guidance on further actions. Assistance under this initiative will be provided by the state together with international partners.
Recall that last week the US House of Representatives passed a law that the US government will finance until September and will send almost $14 billion in assistance to Ukraine, which is fighting against Russian aggression. Of this amount, $100 million is provided for assistance to the agricultural sector of Ukraine.