KIEV, Ukraine (Reuters) — A sharp fall in temperatures in Ukraine may have damaged the country’s winter grain crops be-cause of a lack of snow cover on the fields, analyst UkrAgroConsult said.
A cold snap starting Jan. 6 caused air temperatures to fall to an average 13 to 17 Celsius below zero, and perhaps even to -20 C.
“The current level of snow cover is insufficient for reliable protection of winter crops against frosts harsher than -15 degrees lasting for five days,” Ukr AgroConsult said.
“Survival … by winter crops will entirely depend on the amount of snowfall in this period.”
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A majority of Ukraine’s fields were covered with at most four to five centimetres of snow as of Jan. 5, according to forecasters.
MDA Information Systems reported Jan. 9 that damage was spotty as snow came with the cold.
Ukrainian farmers have in-creased the area seeded for the 2017 harvest to about 20 million acres from 19.3 million acres a year earlier, mostly because of a higher area under winter rapeseed.
Most of the seeded winter grain area was seen in good and satisfactory condition as of Dec. 29.
