Despite the shelling, agrarians of Donetsk region have started sowing spring crops, the Committee on Agrarian and Land Policy reports.
According to the Donetsk Regional Military Administration, the sown area for this year's harvest will be 337,000 hectares, winter crops were sown on 120,000 hectares last autumn, and the rest of the fields have been sown with spring crops since this week.
Despite the challenging situation in Donetsk region due to the hostilities, farmers have started sowing spring crops with favourable weather conditions. The company plans to plant 215,000 hectares of spring crops, including 66,000 hectares of grain, 137,000 hectares of industrial crops and 30,000 hectares of vegetables, potatoes and fodder crops.
At the same time, farmers in Poltava region started sowing sugar beet. Thus, according to Astarta, the sowing campaign has started at the agro-industrial holding's enterprises. This year, the company plans to plant the following areas: sugar beet – 39 thou hectares; soybeans – 65 thou hectares; winter wheat – 49 thou hectares (including 3 thou hectares for seeds); sunflower – 18 thou hectares; winter rape – 12 thou hectares; corn – 6 thou hectares.
The company also noted that the area under organic farming is 2 thou hectares.
As of mid-March, Poltava region planted 4.8 thou hectares of wheat, 18.3 thou hectares of barley, 0.9 thou hectares of peas and 1.4 thou hectares of oats.