Agricultural crops areas in 2025 are no less than last year's 7.8 mln ha

Three regions in southern Ukraine have begun the harvesting campaign of winter barley – Odesa, Kherson and Mykolaiv, farmers are gradually preparing for the harvest of the next crops, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Vitaliy Koval said on the air of the only national telethon.

The minister said that during the 2025 spring sowing, farmers sowed the same number of hectares of grain and leguminous crops as in 2024, namely 5.7 million hectares, in total with sunflower, soybean and sugar beet, the production areas amounted to 7.8 million hectares. The leaders in the sowing campaign were Poltava, Chernihiv, Sumy, Vinnytsia and Cherkasy regions.

"This year we will definitely have food security. And not only for Ukraine, but we will also provide other countries that need food," Koval said.

He admitted that the working conditions of Ukrainian farmers are far from ideal.

"Unfortunately, we have challenges every day. This is both the destruction of infrastructure and the impossibility of normal planning. But it has already happened in Ukraine that we are forced to work not only for ourselves but also for other countries," the minister said.

Koval said that in terms of production of most products and export potential, Ukraine has a surplus of one to four. For some crops, for example, for oilseeds, the potential is one to twenty. Therefore, Ukraine has the opportunity to export surplus products and ensure the inflow of foreign exchange earnings into the country.

The minister said that in the 2025 season, Ukraine has undergone certain changes in crop rotation, in particular, the area under wheat, which is currently quite marginal for farmers, has been increased.

Koval said the conditions in May were quite normal for agricultural production. However, the problem of providing crops with water in the country remains tense due to the destruction of irrigation systems. According to him, in Kherson region, 94% of all irrigated systems are currently not working, in Zaporizhia some 74%, and in Dnipropetrovsk some 30%. Previously, water was provided for them by the destroyed Kakhovka water reservoir.

"The challenges associated with the destruction and theft of equipment remain unresolved... 30,000 tractors have been destroyed, destroyed or stolen from Ukrainian farmers; 2,500 combines have been taken out or destroyed. This is something that, unfortunately, falls on the shoulders of farmers, and they are forced to import new equipment and buy it in order to carry out the harvesting and sowing campaigns," he said.

The minister said that in 2024, Ukraine imported agricultural equipment worth $1 billion, mainly tractors, combines and attachments. In addition, farmers purchased machines within the framework of the state program for compensating the cost of domestic agricultural equipment, and the state reimbursed them UAH 4 billion.