When farmers in Ukraine sowed wheat, rape, barley and rye in the fall of 2021, they worried whether dry weather or higher fertilizer prices would affect their crops and profits. By the time winter crops came out of dormancy in the spring of 2022, life in Ukraine had changed dramatically.
Tanks rolled out onto Ukrainian fields along with the war, and they were covered with blast craters. Even in areas far from the front lines, farmers saw grain “stuck” in silos in elevators because they could not export it. Even grain and oil warehouses have become targets, ProAgro Group wrote, citing SciTechDaily.
We are in the early stages of a food crisis that will affect every country and person on Earth in some way,” said Inbal Becker-Reshef, director of NASA’s Harvest program. – For some populations, it may mean higher prices or no items in the grocery store. For others, history shows it could mean more severe food shortages.”
A map from Planet Labs satellite imagery and the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 mission, processed and analyzed by NASA Harvest, shows the distribution of spring and winter crops in Ukraine as of June 13, 2022. According to the analysis, approximately 22% of Ukraine’s agricultural land, including 28% of winter crops and 18% of spring crops, is under Russian control.
