KIEV, October 16. /TASS/. Ukraine is set to cut winter wheat plantings by more than 20% and barley by 30%, Agriculture Minister Nikolay Solsky said on Sunday.
Farmers in Kiev-controlled areas will plant crops on a smaller area than a year earlier, he said.
"Farmers want to plant wheat on four million hectares, compared with five million hectares that were seeded in the same territories last year. That means a decline of more than 20% this year. As for barley, 800,000 hectares were planted last year, and we forecast 500,000 hectares at the most for this year. That means a decline of at least 30," he told Strana, a Ukrainian news outlet.
Solsky gave several reasons for the declines.
"It’s impossible to forecast sales, rising prices of nitrogen fertilizers, expensive logistics and poor weather, which hampered planting very much, let alone the war," the minister said.
Farmers are yet undecided about what they will sow on the areas that they did not use for winter crops, he said.