October weather did not favour Ukraine’s winter crops, scientists say

Kyiv | Reuters — October weather, as well as in September, was unfavourable for the development of Ukrainian winter crops, most of which lack moisture, analyst APK-Inform quoted the Ukrainian national agricultural academy as saying on Monday.

Ukraine is a global major grain and oilseed grower and exporter.

A record-long drought this summer and autumn led many farmers to sow grain in dry soil in the hope that the autumn rains and mild winter will allow the seeds to germinate and produce a good crop.

Read Also

Trump’s tariffs would reorder trade flows, raise costs, draw retaliation

Iowa farmer Bob Hemesath is worried that U.S. agriculture will pay dearly if Donald Trump wins Tuesday’s presidential election and makes good on a vow to swiftly impose a 60 per cent tariff on Chinese goods and at least a 10 per cent levy on all other imports.

“Expectations of favourable weather in the second half of the autumn period and hopes for rainy weather were largely not justified,” the scientists said in a report.

“The development of plants is very slow, which threatens their further fate during the winter period,” they added.

Ukraine’s state weather forecasters late last month also said that most of Ukraine’s winter crop was under threat as almost all seedlings were underdeveloped.

Scientists also say the current winter grain sowing was accompanied by extremely long unfavourable weather conditions which resulted in a significant delay in the emergence of sprouts or their absence in most areas.

They noted that in the key steppe zone for cereals, the drought lasted from June to October, or 117 days, the first time in three decades.

Ukraine’s agriculture ministry said last week farmers had sown 4.7 million hectares (11.6 million acres) of winter grains for the 2025 harvest as of Oct. 31, or 90.2 per cent of the expected area of 5.19 million hectares (12.8 million acres).

It said the area included 4.1 million hectares (10.1 million acres) of winter wheat, or 92.2 per cent of the projected area. Winter wheat generally accounts for 95 per cent of overall Ukrainian wheat output each year.

— Reporting by Pavel Polityuk