KIEV, Ukraine (Reuters) — Ukraine’s winter wheat acreage could shrink by more than 10 percent because of a severe drought, says the country’s agriculture minister.ato take advantage of warm weather and coming rain.
Ukraine, among the world’s major wheat producers and exporters, had planned to seed 15.3 million acres of winter wheat for the 2016 harvest, almost the same amount as last year.
“I do not think that the area sown with winter wheat will be smaller than in 2014. It will be 5.4 to 5.5 million hectares (13.34 to ,13.59 million acres),” Pavlenko said.
Read Also
Rented farmland jumps 3.4 million acres in Saskatchewan and Alberta
Farmland rented or leased in the two provinces went from 25.7 million acres in 2011 to 29.1 million in 2021, says Census of Agriculture data.
“The most problematic regions are Kherson and Mykolayiv (in southern Ukraine), where 44 percent and 55 percent of the planned area has been sown, respectively.”
Favourable weather last year helped farmers extend the seeding area to more than 14.8 million acres from 13.8 million a year earlier.
Pavlenko said it was unclear what percentage of the already seeded area had sprouted. Market sources have suggested that only 50 percent of the area produced seedlings.
A senior Ukrainian weather forecaster said this month that acres seeded with winter grain for the 2016 harvest could fall by up to 30 percent because of excessively dry weather.
However, recent rain has encouraged a more optimistic outlook.
“The recent rain could improve our forecasts for wheat, barley, rye, rapeseed,” Pavlenko said.
“But we can expect a smaller yield from winter crops sown after the optimum sowing time.”
Traders have recently said that the ministry and traders’ unions had failed to sign a memorandum to determine the amount of grain available for export in the 2015-16 season, adding to market uncertainty.
Pavlenko said the uncertainty over winter wheat seeding and concern about the volume of the next year’s harvest is the main reason for the delay.
