The Russian invasion war in Ukraine has been raging for ten months. This has consequences for agriculture. The harvest will be drastically reduced.
According to estimates, the grain harvest in Ukraine fell by around 40 percent this year as a result of the Russian war of aggression. A crop yield of “65 to 66 million tons” is expected by the end of the year, said the head of the Ukrainian grain association, Sergiy Ivashchenko. Last year, the yield reached a record 106 million tons. The main reason for the decline is the war, explained Ivashchenko.
As a result of the Russian invasion of the country, the available acreage has shrunk and the yield of the seeds has declined. The months-long export blockade on Ukrainian grain have “broken a cycle,” said Grain Union chief Ivashchenko. Farmers had had no income for a long time – which in turn meant that they did not have enough money to buy fertilizers. As a result, the yield fell even on the areas that could be farmed despite the war.
Ivashchenko further explained that in addition to the consequences of the port blockade, the occupation of several regions, fighting on arable land, lack of fuel and the “destruction of infrastructure” in Ukraine had damaged the yield this year. Instead of the usual 25 million hectares of arable land, only 18 to 19 million were harvested this year.
Ukraine is one of the largest grain exporters in the world. However, after the start of the war, the export of 20 million tons of grain from the country was blocked for months.
An agreement signed by Russia and Ukraine in July and extended for around four months in November made it possible to resume exports. According to the responsible authorities, as a result of the agreement, 580 ships with a total of around 15 million tons of Ukrainian grain left the country’s ports.
