For a long period in Ukraine the sowing area under sunflower has been increasing. Thus, according to the State Statistic Service, during the last decade the area under sunflower has grown by more than 30% – from 4.417 million hectares in 2010 to 6.509 million hectares in 2021.
And this trend will continue in the future, ProAgro Group reports citing AgroTimes.
“The amount of precipitation in the future will decrease, which may lead to the expansion of areas under sunflowers because the crop, compared to others, is quite drought-resistant,” says Olesya Drobit, a researcher at the Institute of Irrigated Agriculture of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
This year, farmers do not exclude the possibility of massive reseeding of winter crops in some regions, particularly in the south and west, and sunflower could be one of the crops which will cover free areas.
However, according to the conviction of candidate of agricultural sciences Natalia Kutyshcheva from the Institute of Oilseeds NAASU, now the areas of sunflower in Ukraine already exceed the scientifically sound standards, which leads to a significant reduction in quality and quantity of sunflower seeds.
