KYIV (Reuters) – The prolonged absence of rain in most Ukrainian regions have created unfavourable conditions for sowing and development of winter crops, analyst APK-Inform on Monday quoted Ukraine’s state weather forecasters as saying.
Ukraine is a traditional grower of winter wheat which accounts for around 95% of the overall wheat output.
“The conditions for soil moisture accumulation remained extremely unfavourable,” forecasters said in a report.
The forecasters say most of the regions saw no rain for 30-40 days and “soil drought continues and deepens in 50-60% of areas under winter sowing.”
The agriculture ministry data showed that farmers sowed 513,700 hectares to winter wheat as of Sept. 22, or 11.8% of the expected area of 4.4 million hectares.
Ukraine harvested 22.2 million tonnes of wheat in 2023.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
