20% of Ukrainian farmland to remain unsown amid Russian war
According to Dmytro Solomchuk, a member of Ukraine’s Parliamentary Committee on Agrarian and Land Policy, Ukrainian farmers will not be able to sow about 20% of the country’s farmland due to the Russian occupation, pollution, or mine contamination.
“Some part of the land is occupied, some is mined, and some is littered with Russian scrap. In some places, there’s their decimated hardware, and in some — there are shells. All this scrap must be collected as it could damage agricultural equipment. Relevant services and some charitable foundations are working on this, but it is a long process,” Solomchuk said. He added that Ukrainian agricultural producers have, for the most part, adapted to the war conditions. A certain change in crops is expected — the area under corn will decrease, but soybeans and rapeseed will increase.
