Ukrainian farms have sown 693,000 hectares of spring grain as of March 17, or 24 percent of the expected sowing area, the agriculture ministry said on Tuesday. The ministry has said the area under early spring grain, mostly spring wheat and barley, is likely to reach 2.9 million hectares this year and could total 8.6 million hectares together with maize.
It said the already-sown area included 518,000 hectares of spring barley, 76,000 hectares of peas and 42,000 hectares of spring wheat. But some analysts say up to 20 percent of Ukrainian arable land might not be sown this year, mainly because of an absence of financing in connection with the country's economic and political difficulties.
Kiev-based UCAB consultancy said this week Ukraine, gripped by political turmoil for more than three months, could lose about 11 million tonnes of grain in the 2014 harvest due to a sharp decrease in sowing area caused by a shortage of funds. Ukraine produced an all-time-high grain harvest of 63 million tonnes in 2013. Analysts have said favourable weather could help farmers to harvest around 60 million tonnes of grain in 2014.
