Frozen Crops

This jocular statement was first made by a team from the Zhytomyr Academy of Agricultural Ecology in a brain trust competition (dating from the 1960s and generally known as KVN). There is a grain of truth in every joke, but in this case it is not a grain but a metric ton, as the current situation shows.

The field is covered by a thick layer of snow with long faded yellow corn stems sticking out, bent under -200C. This gloomy landscape greets one at the collective agricultural Promin (Sunbeam) agricultural enterprise based in the village of Kocherhiv, Radomyshl rayon. A week ago they still had about 100 hectares of corn under the snow. "We planted some 300 hectares of corn, with over one-third for seed, but we did it a bit later than we should, and it had not ripened when the frost struck," says Promin chief agronomist Mykola Padalko. "Even so, we could not harvest the crop. It was too cold and the oil froze, so the tractors and combines could not be started. We'll do it when it gets warmer, then we'll grind the corn and use it as fodder."

At the same time, corn buried in the snow cannot be harvested by the collective farmers individually, explains the agronomist, because it is considered collective property and letting individual farmers take any part of it would be considered as arbitrariness and breaking the rules, in other words, as acts punishable under the law.

Statistics from the Zhytomyr oblast state administration's agribusiness department show that some 1,150 hectares of seed corn remained unharvested as of December 1. Other crops to be reaped in summer and autumn were reported to have been collected. However, some farmers told The Day's reporter that sugar beets, even potatoes and flax also remain under the snow on quite a number of collective farms. Most corn still to be harvested is registered in Popilnia and Radomyshl districts: 500 and 320 hectares respectively.

THE DAY'S COMMENTARY

This year's crop yields in Ukraine are several times below last year's. The Ministry of Statistics has it that collective agricultural and interfarm enterprises supplied 23,062,000 tons of grain compared to last year's 28,663,000 tons.

Sugar beet and corn yields are also nothing to write home about: 4,612,000 tons (vs. 17,383,000 in 1997) and 1,075,000 tons (vs. 2,752,000) respectively.

Olha Bielokur, deputy head of the ministry's agricultural and environmental statistics department, believes that this year's crops could have been saved despite the weather, had the domestic farming enterprises been better equipped and if enough mineral fertilizer had been used.

Be it as it may, neither the Ministry of Statistics nor that of agriculture could inform The Day about how much remains under the snow and what crops are still to be harvested. The Agriculture Ministry's head of economic analysis Nina Krysiuk says, "We will take stock after December 20." And maybe after the snow melts?
Inna ZOLOTUKHINA, The Day