Severe weather events hold back spring barley sowing campaign
As of March 27, rainy weather (with a possible transition to sleet) has set in most of Ukraine, which makes it difficult to carry out spring sowing, APK-Inform reports.
Severe weather events are also observed in the territory of 4 key regions for the production of spring barley — Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye, Kharkov and Donetsk, which in 2017 accounted for 37% of all acreage under barley in Ukraine.
At present, the spring sowing of barley for the harvest of 2018 has already substantially delayed. So, if as of March 27, 2017, according to the data of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, 515 thou. ha (32% of the total area) had already been sown, then at the reporting date the official reports about the beginning of the active phase of the sowing campaign have not yet been received.
At the indicated date last year, in Dnipropetrovsk region spring barley was already sown on 28% of the area, in Donetsk region — 48%, in Zaporozhye region — 64%, in Kharkiv region, where sowing traditionally begins later, — 11%.
