Four powerful natural factors impede progress in Ukrainian agriculture:
winter, spring, summer, and fall.
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







