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25% of Ukraine’s arable land lost to war, says agriculture minister

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Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="A sunflower-seeds storage on fire after shelling on a farm close to the front line near the city of Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, May 31, 2022. STR, EPA-EFE/file" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/overseas/06/13/20220613-sunflower.jpg"/><figcaption>A sunflower-seeds storage on fire after shelling on a farm close to the front line near the city of Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, May 31, 2022. <em>STR, EPA-EFE/file</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>Ukraine has lost a quarter of its arable land since Russia&#x27;s invasion, notably in the south and east, the deputy agriculture minister said Monday while insisting that food security is not threatened.</p><p>&quot;Despite the loss of 25 percent of arable land, crop planting this year is more than sufficient&quot; to ensure food for the population, Taras Vysotskiy told a news conference.</p><p>He said national consumption levels had fallen &quot;due to mass displacement and external migration&quot; as millions fled to escape the fighting. </p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/06/13/22/ex-pm-says-putin-out-of-it-ukraine-war-could-last-2-years">Ex-PM says Putin &#x27;out of it&#x27;, Ukraine war could last two years</a></li></ul><p>More than seven million people are estimated to have been displaced within Ukraine by Russia&#x27;s war, figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) show. </p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/06/04/22/putin-says-no-problem-to-export-grain-from-ukraine">Putin says &#x27;no problem&#x27; to export grain from Ukraine</a></li></ul><p>But another 7.3 million have fled abroad, more than half of them to Poland.</p><p>Despite the significant loss of land to the Russians, &quot;the current situation of crop planting areas.. does not pose a threat to Ukraine&#x27;s food security,&quot; he said. </p><p>&quot;Ukrainian farmers managed to prepare relatively well for sowing before the war started,&quot; he said. </p><p>&quot;In February, Ukraine had already imported about 70 percent of necessary fertilizers, 60 percent of disease control products and about a third of the required fuel&quot; for sowing, he said. </p><p>However, the invasion of several regions by Russian troops and the ongoing blockade of Ukraine&#x27;s Black Sea ports, preventing the export of grain, forced Ukrainian farmers &quot;to change what they were sowing and how much,&quot; Vysotskiy said.</p><p>Before the war, Ukraine had more than 30 million hectares of arable land, according to the international NGO World Data Center-Ukraine.</p><p>Despite Vysotskiy&#x27;s reassurances that the war is not threatening Ukraine&#x27;s domestic food supplies, the UN has warned the conflict risks tipping tens of millions around the globe into food insecurity, with the risks of malnutrition, mass hunger and famine. </p><p>Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said about 20-25 million tonnes of grain were currently blocked in Ukrainian ports, a figure which could rise to 70-75 million tonnes by the autumn.</p><p>Before the war, Ukraine was the world&#x27;s fourth-largest supplier of wheat and maize. </p><p>Between them, Russia and Ukraine produce 30 percent of the global wheat supply.</p><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2055473" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

‘The current situation of crop planting areas ... Does not pose a threat to Ukraine’s food security,’ the Ukraine agriculture minister said.