News
03.03.2010
Poor fertilizer use to take toll on Ukraine grain
Imbalanced fertilizer regimes, prompted by a dearth of farm finance, and a rising rate of winterkill will help cut Ukraine's grain production this year despite a rise in sowings, UkrAgroConsult has said.
The harsh winter caused plant loss of up to 60% in some eastern Ukrainian farms, although crops in other parts of the country were protected by snow blankets.
"The most frost-damaged plants are in weak crops of winter barley… and poorly winter-resistant West European varieties of winter wheat," the influential analysis group said.
With 10.3% of winter crops in weak condition, compared with 6.1% a year ago, winterkill rates were on course to return to historic levels of 6-10% after two seasons of less significant damage.
'Worsening soil fertility'
Crops also faced the threat of poor fertilizer management as farmers, estimated to possess only half the 24bn hryvna needed for spring sowing and field work, grappled with a shortage of loans, on which annual interest rates were typically 20-30%.
While farmers were likely to keep fertilizer applications at about the same as last year's 62 kilogrammes per hectares, they were likely to make "disproportionate" use of nitrogen, the cheapest nutrient.
"Producers will apply phosphate at lower rates and even less potash," UkrAgroConsult said.
"This may lead to acidification of soils and worsening soil fertility, thereby limiting future crop yields."
Production decline
The analysis group pegged yields of winter wheat, Ukraine's biggest grain crop, falling 10.4% to 2.82 tonnes per hectare.
The overall grain crop would drop by 1.89m tonnes to 43.50m tonnes, despite an extra 275,000 hectares coming into production.
Agrimoney.com
