Farmers sow 76% of spring grains and legumes from plan, catch up with last year's figure in terms of area

As of May 9, Ukraine sowed 4.32 million hectares with spring grains and legumes, which corresponds to last year's figure and is 76% of the plan, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food reported on Friday.

According to its data, 1.07 million hectares were sown during the week and the backlog from last year's sowing schedule was reduced by 6.1%.

As noted by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, 2.9 million ha have already been sown with corn (1.92 million hectares a week earlier), 733,400 ha with barley (715,200 ha), spring wheat – 212,600 ha (207,900 ha), peas – 208,900 ha (205,700 ha), oats – 157,000 ha (157,000 ha), buckwheat – 16,300 ha (7,000 ha), millet – 15,700 ha (6,000 ha).

According to the plan, corn sowing reached 73%, barley - 94%, spring wheat - 93%, peas - 96%, oats - 97%, buckwheat - 18%, millet - 20%.

Last year, as of May 10, 2.84 million ha were sown with corn, 779,900 ha with barley, 244,900 ha with spring wheat, peas – 161,600 ha, oats – 165,000 ha, buckwheat – 14,800 ha, millet – 28,500 ha.

According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, the leading sowing rates are in Poltava region – 509,700 ha, Kirovohrad region – 352,000 ha, Chernihiv region – 349,700 ha, Cherkasy region – 339,800 ha and Sumy region – 294,300 ha.

Industrial crops were sown on an area of 5.2 million ha compared to 3.432 million ha a week earlier and 5.42 million ha last year on the same date.

The area under sunflower reached 3.5 million ha (2.36 million ha a week ago and 3.96 million ha last year), soybeans – 1.3 million ha (730,000 ha and 1.20 million ha) and sugar beet – 220,000 ha (220,000 ha and 250,000 ha).

The Ministry of Agrarian Policy notes that sunflower crops currently account for 69% of the plan, soybeans – 55.9%, and sugar beet – 99%.