Sowing early crops too slowly can lead to a reduction in planted areas

Cold and rainy weather delays the sowing of grain and leguminous crops, with which only 102,000 hectares were sown in Ukraine during the week, the largest being 19,000 hectares in Volyn, where the intensity of rains is lower.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, as of April 15, 722.4 thousand hectares of grain and leguminous crops were sown in Ukraine (1.239 million hectares last year and 1.531 million hectares in 2021), in particular:

• to grow barley - 436 thousand hectares (742.9 thousand hectares last year and 1.059 million hectares in 2021 on this date),
• spring wheat - 142.8 thousand ha (146.4 thousand ha and 124.2 thousand ha),
• peas - 84.7 thousand ha (100.5 thousand ha and 177 thousand ha),
• oats - 53.6 thousand ha (112 thousand ha and 134.6 thousand ha),
• corn - so far only 0.7 thousand ha (122.6 thousand ha and 35.8 thousand ha).

Agricultural farms of Vinnytsia, Volyn, Cherkasy, Rivne, Ternopil, and Khmelnytsky regions began sowing sugar beets and sowed 32,700 hectares with them (74,000 hectares last year and 110,300 hectares in 2021).

37.2 thousand hectares (433.7 thousand hectares and 390.1 thousand hectares) were sown with sunflower in Ivano-Frankivsk region, Bukovyna, Kyiv region, Mykolaiv region, Odesa region, Kharkiv region, Sumy region, Ternopil region and Khmelnytskyi region.

In addition, the majority of farmers completed the first fertilizing of crops with mineral nitrogen fertilizers.

As a result of the delay in sowing, the area under spring barley and peas may decrease, especially given the low export prices and demand in the previous season.

We will remind that due to the unfavorable autumn weather, the area of sowing winter crops decreased sharply compared to the previous season:

• wheat - from 6.5 to 4.17 million hectares,
• barley - from 969 to 536 thousand hectares,
• rapeseed - from 1.414 to 1.374 million hectares.

Slow sowing can lead to significant changes in the structure of cultivated areas in Ukraine, in particular to an increase in sowing of soybeans and sunflowers, which have high profitability of production and low sowing costs.