Drought in southern, central and eastern Ukraine can lead to losses of up to half of grain harvests

Drought in southern, central and eastern Ukraine can lead to losses of up to half of grain harvests, warns the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Rada, or VAR. Wheat and barley are the most affected by the lack of rain, according to a Rada member survey. Nikolai Gursky, director of Lyudmila farm in Khmelnytskiy, said: “The last rain in our district passed 2-3 weeks ago, and then it was very weak. It soaked the soil no more than 2-3 cm. This is the only rain since winter.” For his farms, he predicted soy losses of 20% and wheat losses of 30%. Alexander Doroshenko, director of Terra farms in Dnipropetrovsk region predicted his crop losses at 50%.