Obozrevatel (Ukraine): strongest in 20 years drought in Ukraine led to disaster with the harvest. The earth turned to dust and farmers are suicidal

Lost harvest and could not pay

In the Odessa region in the village of Shevchenkove local farmer Vladimir serdyuchenko may 11, committed suicide. They say he left a note which explained the reason for his action. In the village still can’t get over it.

“Vladimir had committed suicide the day before yesterday, and early this morning found in a field of another farmer. Next to him was his bike. Then Lee went to the field to see what was left of his winter and he was shot down, whether too as he committed suicide,” — says a local resident.

Vladimir serdyuchenko originally from Shevchenkove, then he had a son, a daughter and grandchildren. He owned 150 hectares of land and was considered a big farmer. However, because of the extreme dry winter and spring crops he lost. And that though as-that to pay off the villagers, he had to pereseyat. And this required a loan of about a million, which the farmer, according to rumors, was never able to take.

“We have no land now, just dust. If earlier earth will plough and will not have time to break up clumps, then they are just clumps and hardens. And now it is not, dust and all. Where the rain sprinkled, there is a strip of winter green, and the next band is yellow, all is lost,” says local resident Valentine.

The last comparable drought was here in the early 2000s. “If we for a hectare of land give a ton of grain, then gave half a ton, and next year the farmer pay extra. And this year, I doubt anything will. And the farm must contain the chickens, someone pigs. Have to buy or put under the knife,” says Valentine.

In the village water either. Give it here once a week. Villagers fill the tank and use this water all seven days. To water the gardens it expensive.

“From the Danube to the us 15-18 kilometers, the pipe is already rusted, the water cube is 31 UAH. Too expensive a vegetable garden is to water. A neighbor has a well, he fries drip method irrigates, she had beautiful. And I have no well, so I have potatoes even not tied have it this year in the market to buy. Some salt wells take water, so salt on the ground then stands,” sighs Valentina.

She says that normal rain in them had for two years: “a Little pass, I have the ground wet for 1 cm, from a neighbor half a kilometer on 6 see Here to whom as will carry. One pea at 10 cm increased, one at 3 cm.”

The bread will rise in price

A farmer from Chernigov Basil Drach also said that this year not all farms will harvest. “Very bad things in Odesa, Kherson, Mykolayiv, Kirovohrad in 50: 50. We have in Chernihiv, what will be the harvest show may. If it rains on Nicholas in the beginning of June, half of the crop will survive. The moisture in the ground should be a meter in depth, and we still have 30 cm,” says Drach.

General Director of “agro Analysis” Vadim Dudka also notes that in the South of Ukraine killed up to 30% of grain that has not recovered.

“We cut off the supply of water in the Crimea and in the coming years to renew it there is not going. Why would the government not take care of their own agriculture and to build the irrigation system in the South. Because in the river there’s enough water. It will work, and the opportunity to grow produce and pay taxes,” says Dudka.

Member of the Economic discussion club Oleg Pendzin believes that this year we have a crop failure and a rise in prices for bread and potatoes. “Today there is a clear understanding that due to weather conditions this year will be lean. We will have a hot and dry summer. According to preliminary estimates, the grain harvest will be 18% lower than last year, about 60 million tons. The bread will rise in price in connection with the increase in grain prices,” — explains Pendzin.

In addition will increase demand for potatoes. Not everyone had time to plant potatoes at their dachas and vegetable gardens because of the lack of public transport, so will buy it in the markets.

According to Penzina, this year, the price of food will increase by 10-15%. “This preliminary assessment. But the UN has sounded the alarm: this year, more people will starve. After all the lean years, severe weather conditions and because of the quarantine, many countries had not fully all to sow. Therefore, the price of food will go up,” explains Pendzin.

However, on may 13, speaking in Parliament, Premier Denis Shmyhal surprised by their predictions. On the question of why still Ukraine is exporting grain abroad unlike other countries that have suspended this process in the context of a pandemic, the Prime Minister replied: “we Have enough grain. We have a six-month supply for consumption in Ukraine until the new harvest. If we don’t do today export in the quantities that have to do with a six-month reserve, which is just enough until the next harvest, we get just the grain that must be disposed of in a landfill, and agricultural companies, the budget of Ukraine will lose foreign exchange earnings”.

But will Apple

While Ukraine was lucky with fruits and vegetables. Despite two waves of frost, we will with berries and fruit and vegetables. “The frost, which covered Eastern Europe, captured only part of the Western Ukraine and in some places. On average, suffered 20% soft berries — strawberries, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries. The first wave of frosts apples not hurt. They had not yet bloomed. The only thing that was hurt, it’s apricots and peaches. But in principle, enough of them are imported to Ukraine from abroad”, — said the head of the project “APK inform: Vegetables and fruits”.

 

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