Ukrainian farmers launch campaign to sow winter grain crops

First nine regions in Ukraine have launched a campaign to sow winter grain crops for the harvest of 2019.

The campaign began on September 5, a week later than last year, the Ukragroconsult Consulting Agency's press service reported.

"As of September 5, nine regions of Ukraine had started sowing winter crops for the harvest of 2019: Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Kirovohrad, Luhansk, Sumy, Kharkiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, and Chernihiv," the report said.

Experts note that although the sowing campaign started a week later than it was last year, its pace is by 16% higher.

Farmers plan to reduce areas under winter grain crops this year by 32,900 hectares compared to the previous year. At the same time, areas under winter wheat will be expanded by 32,800 hectares in comparison with the previous year.

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Areas under winter barley and rye this year will shrink by 54,000 hectares and 13,600 hectares, respectively.

Winter wheat and triticale will account for 85.8% of winter grain crops to be sown this year, the share of winter barley will be 12.1% and that of winter rye will be 2%, experts said.

As UNIAN reported, the past winter was the most successful for winter crops in Ukraine over the entire history of records. The loss of winter crops was less than 0.1%, Ukraine's Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry said.