A third of Ukraine's winter grain crops are in poor condition due to a severe drought that hit the country during sowing, the Farm Ministry said on Monday. The ministry said 79.7 percent of the sown area had sprouted as of December 26 against 93 percent at the same date in 2010.
It said in a statement that 66 percent of the sprouted crops were in good or satisfactory conditions while 34 percent were in poor state. The share of poor crops totalled 7 percent as of December 26, 2010.
"The area which might be reseeded next spring could reach 1.5 to 2.0 million hectares," the ministry said. It also said it would persuade farmers to increase the area sown for spring barley in 2012 by 260,000 hectares to 2.85 million, maize by 672,000 hectares to 4.3 million , and other cereals by 141,000 hectares to 951,000.
Ukraine harvested a record 56.4 million tonnes of grain in clean weight in 2011 against 39.2 million in 2010. The harvest includes 22.4 million tonnes of wheat, 22.3 million of maize and 9.1 million of barley.