Bloody sowing campaign of 2022: the first results and forecasts. Infographics

The sowing campaign of 2022 will forever go down in history as the one during a full-scale invasion  — with victims, mined fields, fuel shortages, seeds transported from warehouses under fire, and stolen products. However, the motivation of Ukrainian farmers impresses international experts, analysts, and partners no less than the motivation of the Armed Forces. Figures with the area of ​​sown crops prove it. Thus, spring crops in the controlled territory of Ukraine were planted on 14,163.4 thousand hectares. This is almost 3 thousand hectares less than last year (16,916 thousand hectares). However, given the conditions, these indicators show that Ukraine will not only be able to feed its citizens but also still has high export potential.

"The structure of sown areas has not changed much in the main crops. Spring wheat was sown almost the same as last year. The same goes for barley, oats, and buckwheat. However, the area with corn and sunflower has decreased: 4.62 thousand hectares and 4.68 thousand hectares in 2022 against 5.47 thousand hectares and 6.50 thousand hectares in 2021, respectively," Suzana Grigorenko, Executive Director of the Seed Association of Ukraine.

Instead, the area under soybeans and spring oilseed rape increased. Notably, there were cases when farmers, having corn seeds and necessary plant protection products ready for sowing in a warehouse, chose soy, spring wheat, or some other crops. This is primarily due to the need for more careful care of corn and the fact that corn is an export crop. As the export process is challenging to organise at present, farmers had to make a choice:

• in favour of late-season crops (e.g., soybeans),
• in favour of those crops that need less processing,
• in favour of crops that can be both sold abroad as raw materials and processed inside Ukraine (once again, soybeans and rapeseed are at the winning positions here),
• in favour of crops that do not require large capacities for transportation.

"This year, we saw a demand for crops that, on the one hand, give a lower gross harvest. For example, the average yield of rapeseed or soybeans is 25-30 centners per hectare against 55-65 centners per hectare of wheat or 80 centners per hectare of corn. However, these crops are more expensive," adds the Seed Association.

Another critical point that influenced farmers' choice of crops during this sowing was logistics. Namely, it is the transportation and storage of products. After all, grain from the 2021 harvest is still in warehouses in Ukraine. In addition, the corn must be dried after harvesting and provided with good storage conditions so it can be exported. Therefore, some farmers refused corn or wheat to avoid losing the harvest due to increased demand for logistics capacity.

The number of sunflowers also decreased significantly. Traditionally, this year, the "sunflower" regions — Kherson, Zaporizhia, Donetsk, and some other regions — were minimally sown with this crop. For comparison by regions:

• Kherson: in 2021, it was 338 thousand hectares, whereas, in 2022, it is 8.6 thousand hectares,
• Zaporizhzhya: in 2021, it was 531.1 thousand hectares, whereas, in 2022, it is 60.6 thousand hectares,
• Donetsk: in 2021, it was 349.3 thousand hectares, whereas, in 2022, it is 195 thousand hectares.

The critical situation is in the Luhansk region, where active hostilities continue. Last year sunflowers were growing there on 427.4 thousand hectares. This year it was impossible to sow anything — 0 hectares. Instead, the "sunflower relay" was picked up by other regions that sowed this crop more than last year. Those are Dnipropetrovsk (598 thousand hectares in 2021 against 612 thousand hectares this year) and Zhytomyr (145.9 thousand hectares in 2021 against 155.2 thousand hectares in 2022). Even the regions where sunflower is not so actively grown sowed several thousand hectares more, namely in Rivne, Ternopil, and Ivano-Frankivsk regions.

In general, we see the following situation in the regions. Farmers tried to sow as much as possible in the areas without active hostilities. The worst situation is in the Luhansk region as nothing was sown there. Most likely, due to the active phase of the war, winter crops will not be harvested, and it is unlikely that there will be winter crops for the 2022-23 season. Therefore, the battle for the 2022 harvest continues, as well as the preparation for winter sowing. We refuse to give up, and we continue keeping the agrarian front!