Ukraine's maize harvest is likely to rise by about 20 percent to at least 25 million tonnes this year on improved weather and a larger sowing area, a senior weather forecaster said on Monday. "We have perfect conditions for maize growing this year and the harvest could exceed 25 million tonnes," Tetyana Adamenko, head of the state weather forecasting centre's agriculture department, told Reuters.
She said the maize yield could rise to 5.2 tonnes per hectare this year against 4.79 tonnes in 2012 but would be much lower than the record of 6.44 tonnes per hectare in 2011, when sowing areas were much smaller. Adamenko noted that high heat levels across Ukraine's eastern and southern regions could affect some crops but the damage would not be significant as maize production is concentrated in the centre and north of the country.
The head of the weather centre, Mykola Kulbida, told reporters on Monday that a lack of rain and expected drought was likely to reduce the yield of maize in the Mykolayiv, Kherson and Donetsk regions in southern Ukraine. "The current weather conditions in southern Ukraine are not favourable for maize. We do not forecast rains in the next two weeks in the region," he added. Drought and heat last summer reduced Ukrainian maize output to 20.9 million tonnes from 22.8 million tonnes a year earlier.
Ukraine's Agriculture Minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk has forecast the output at a record 28 million tonnes this year , while analysts see the harvest at 24 million tonnes. They say an increase in the sowing area to 5 million hectares this year from 4.4 million hectares in 2012 is the additional reason for the higher harvest.
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