The spring sowing campaign has started in Ukraine. Whether producers are ready for it and how the sown areas of crops will change explained Denys Marchuk, the UAC Deputy Chairman, during a briefing at Ukrinform.

"Farmers lack working capital for the sowing season. The 5-7-9 program is working, but the credit limit of UAH 90 million has remained unchanged, while the components for the sowing season have risen two to three times in price. Many producers have exhausted their credit limits and need to increase them to at least UAH 150 million. In some regions, farmers have been operating at a loss for two years and will not sow this year, and an increase in credit limits would allow them to conduct the sowing campaign. This year, the government has allocated loans for the de-occupied territories, and we hope that this will speed up demining and entry into the fields, as farms in the liberated territories have not had such state support for two years," said Denys Marchuk.

Another challenge for this year's sowing season was the lack of staff due to mobilization.

"We need to speed up the booking process, which takes 1-2 months. Tractor drivers, agronomists, and livestock farm workers are very much needed at their workplaces. The ideal solution would be online booking, which has already been developed by the Cabinet of Ministers but not yet approved. We also need a transparent system for booking agricultural machinery," emphasized Denys Marchuk.

The acreage of certain crops will be reduced due to their unprofitability.

"The purchase price of corn is conditionally at 4,500 UAH/t, and the cost of a ton of this grain is about 6,000 UAH. For the next season, some farmers will refuse to grow corn or reduce its area. Sunflower plantings will also decrease, but for the most part, producers will rely on oilseeds - soybeans and rapeseed, which showed profitability last season," added the UAC Chairman.          

According to him, farmers are also going to carry out the sowing campaign in the regions close to the hostilities zone, in particular in Kherson region, where the shelling continues. The problem of demining remains acute in these regions.

"In 2023, 200,000 hectares of land in Ukraine were demined and transferred for cultivation, while about 2 million hectares need to be demined. There are 3.5 thousand sappers working on demining, which is not enough. We also need equipment, and we hope that in 2024 we will have more demining machines thanks to our foreign partners and our own production," summarized Denys Marchuk.