At the end of March, sowing season began, more than 700,000 hectares have been already sown. All regions are engaged in fieldwork, except for mined and close to front line territories

Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Agri Council, Denis Marchuk, spoke about the progress of sowing and the farmers’ challenges during a briefing at the "Ukrinform" media center:

"The sowing campaign requires funding: fertilizers, plant protection products, seeds, etc., need to be purchased, and costs will increase by 19% this year. If farmers had reserves in 2022, they have run out in 2023, and there are no free funds for sowing. I remind you that throughout the previous season, producers sold the grain at a loss or close to the cost price. It caused difficulties, but the biggest impact on the reduction of sown areas in the new season will be caused by occupation, mines, and land pollution due to hostilities. Due to these factors, 7 million hectares will not be involved in the sowing campaign.  Ukraine planned to sow 19 million hectares, which will provide the domestic food market and exports. In pursuit of profitability, farmers will increase the areas under oilseeds - sunflower will cover no less than 6 million hectares, soybean and rapeseed are interesting crops to grow this year."

It is too early to predict the future harvest. The yield can be significantly affected by fertilizer application indicators.

"If last year we harvested 53 million tons of grain, then in the summer, we will see a decrease of at least 10 million tons. Gross collection will depend on yield, and as already mentioned, resources for sowing are not always sufficient. A month ago, we noted that farmers' fertilizer supply was 30%, now the indicator has risen to 60%. The main problem of low availability of agrochemicals is financial.

Farmers relied on preferential loans, but the "5-7-9" program was not prolonged for a long time, which has recently been done. However, the mechanism for lending needs to be improved: to increase the credit limit for the agricultural sector from UAH 90 million to UAH 180 million because many enterprises have already used the limits last year and cannot use the credit now. Just remind that sowing requires expenses of around 230 billion UAH from the agricultural sector. The borrowed money will be returned to the state, and the increase in limits will enable enterprises to perform field work effectively