Photo from UNIAN
Head of the agriculture department at the National Weather Center in Kyiv Tetiana Adamenko says that summer drought observed in Kyiv, Cherkasy, Poltava and Kirovohrad regions will lead to a significant decrease in the yield of grain crops in Ukraine.
"This year the drought epicenter is located in Kyiv region where the least amount of precipitation has fallen in the last 60 years ... Cherkasy, Poltava, and Kirovohrad regions have also been affected," she said at a press conference on July 20.
According to Adamenko, the drought in Ukraine started back in April when early grain crops (wheat and barley) were growing with the lack of moisture in the soil. Now the drought has affected the future yield of late crops, such as corn and sunflower.
At the same time, she says there is no threat of drought in the western regions of Ukraine and the established temperature contributes to the normal development of the crops.
According to expert forecasts, the grain yield in Ukraine in 2017 will be 15-20% down against 2016, said agrarian markets analyst from the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club Petro Lakhai, who also attended the press conference.
The yield of winter and spring wheat has already fallen by 18-20% from 2016, while that of winter barley has shrunk by 5%, spring barley by 19%, and peas by 25%.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian agrarians harvested 10 million tonnes of grain from 3.1 million hectares (32% of the target) as of July 18, according to the Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry's press service.
Read alsoCold snap threatens future fruit harvest in Ukraine – weather expertDuring the spring sowing campaign, the agrarians sowed spring grains and leguminous crops on 7.17 million hectares. A total of 14.3 million hectares was sown with grain crops (including 7.15 million hectares with winter crops). The total area of crops for the harvest of 2017 is estimated at 26.9 million hectares, which is 152,000 hectares more than in 2016.
Ukrainian farmers planted 8.1 million hectares with winter crops and green forage in 2016, which was 3.8% up against 2015. At the same time, the area for grain crops increased by 1.5%, to 7,200 hectares, the State Statistics Service said.
Ukraine harvested 65.95 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops in 2016, which was 9.7% up from 2015. It was also a record yield of grain over the country's independence, according to the State Statistics Service.