As Oleksandr Liyev, the Adviser to the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, reported during a press-conference on March 16th, the current spring sowing campaign in the Crimea faced three major problems: a shortage of seeds, the lack of irrigation systems and an extremely insufficient number of agricultural equipment. Moreover, the sowing campaign for rice, soy and other water-dependent crops, including the fodder crops, is not starting on the Peninsula this year.

“Seeds had always been imported to the Crimea from mainland Ukraine. That is why the issue of seeds deficiency is so pressing today. The other current issue for the Crimea is 400 thousand hectares of irrigated land. If these areas are sown, this would be done with the use of the available resources, which could be used for a few years. After 50 years of existence of the irrigation systems, the soil still keeps some resources. As a result, the yields would be unprofitable. The Crimeans will try to carry out the sowing campaign only for the sake of saving the jobs”, Oleksandr Liyev stressed.

According to Oleksandr Liyev, the third issue relates to the further harvesting. “The Crimea does not have its own technical equipment for the harvesting campaign. There stayed about 100 our Ukrainian combine harvesters. Ukraine still continues to pay the lease for this machinery. We cannot take it back. But even this equipment satisfies only one-third of the needs in harvesting equipment. Therefore, the Crimea will have no means to harvest the crop”, the Adviser to the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine stressed.