KIEV, Jan 5 (Reuters) – An expected sharp fall in temperatures in Ukraine could damage the country’s winter grain crops because of a lack of snow cover on the fields, analyst UkrAgroConsult said on Thursday.
Meteorologists forecast a cold snap starting on Jan. 6 and predict that air temperatures will fall on average to -13 to -17 C, perhaps even to -20 C.
“The current level of snow cover is insufficient for reliable protection of winter crops against frosts harsher than -15 C lasting for five days,” it said in a statement.
“Survival of the upcoming frost by winter crops will entirely depend on the amount of snowfall in this period.”
A majority of Ukraine’s fields are covered with at most 4-5 centimetres of snow as of Jan. 5, according to forecasters.
Ukrainian farmers have increased the area sown for the 2017 harvest to about 20 million acres from 19.27 million a year earlier, mostly due to a higher area under winter rape.
Most of the sown winter grain area was seen in good and satisfactory condition as of Dec. 29.
