War forces farmers to reconsider crop rotation: grains and potatoes are the priority
Ukrainian agricultural producers, where the situation allows, have already entered the fields to feed winter crops and note that the sowing campaign will be carried out to the maximum. Everyone understands that Ukraine should be sown, because today the food security and economic stability of the country depends on every farmer.
Farmer Andrey Verteba lives and cultivates the land in a relatively calm area, 150 km from Kyiv. In peacetime, he specialized in growing pumpkins, but now he says that the culture is out of time.
“The pumpkin is mainly exported, but whether and when it will be is unknown. Therefore, I will sow it, but on small areas - up to 10 hectares, ”says the agrarian.
Part of the land is already sown with winter wheat, and he assumes that significant areas will be sown with soybeans this year, since there is enough seed, but at the same time there is no herbicide for this crop and there is no way to buy it yet.
“Specifically, I lack everything for the sowing campaign: fuel, no herbicide at all. Pumpkin seeds have not been sold, so there are no funds to purchase resources,” Andrey Verteba notes.
He adds that if he had seed, he would also sow spring wheat or barley. According to the farmer, now it is more necessary. He also thinks about growing vegetables, especially potatoes.
“I believe that we will break through. Victory is ours. Glory to Ukraine! Death to the enemies! APU is strength! Andrey Verteba is sure.
Natalya Tabinskaya, co-founder of the Field of Happiness SFG, head of the Farmers' Motherland and the Farmers' Country agricultural center, reports that Lviv farmers plan to increase the sown area under spring trees in the region by almost 1,000 hectares this season. And small farmers have plans to diversify vegetables.
A farmer from the Lviv region says that this year he is going to retrain for strategic products: potatoes, wheat, sugar beets.
“The crisis will be all the same. Even if they help Ukraine for free, then only with pasta, but they won’t give us flour and sugar, since we are global producers of these products,” he notes.