As Ukraine sowing season starts, fuel shortages threaten food supply

by Selim SAHEB ETTABA
Agence France-Presse

Bahaté, Ukraine (AFP) – In an countless discipline in southwest Ukraine, farmers started to plant sunflower seeds in the beginning of the sowing season, however a gasoline scarcity threatens manufacturing within the war-torn nation, whose land feeds tens of millions all over the world.

The world’s prime producer of sunflower oil and a serious exporter of wheat is a breadbasket of the world beneath menace from the Russian invasion.

This implies the destiny of worldwide meals safety is dependent upon Ukrainian farms, such because the fertile grounds of Alexander Petkov’s land in Bahate, close to the Romanian border.

“The season begins right here, within the areas not hit by warfare,” Petkov, 47, stated. The areas torn by the battle such because the southern cities of Kherson and Mykolaiv additional to the east won’t be able to start planting as normal.

Mykolaiv is dealing with a day by day barrage of Russian shelling whereas Ukrainian forces have launched a counter-offensive to retake Kherson.

Final yr, Petkov’s farming enterprise, unfold throughout 5 villages, yielded 30,000 tonnes of barley, 27,000 tonnes of wheat and 5,500 tonnes of sunflower.

Petkov factors to the blackened sunflower seeds and wheat piling up in his barns as there’s nowhere to take them. There may be concern too over the danger that gasoline wanted for the sowing season will shortly run out.

“All of the ports are closed due to the presence of Russian warships within the Black Sea,” the farmer stated.

The Ukrainian authorities has prompt exporting agricultural merchandise by way of the Romanian port of Constanta, however there was no progress within the plan, Petkov stated.

“We’re at the moment utilizing the remaining gasoline we had earlier than the warfare, however there is no such thing as a new provide,” he stated, including that he may run out inside 5 days.

Hundreds of thousands affected

In a report final week, the United Nations Meals and Agriculture Group warned that Ukraine relies upon closely on gasoline imports, with about 70 % of imports of petrol and diesel coming from Russia and its ally Belarus.

“A key bottleneck to the spring planting season, the place it’s attainable because of the warfare, is gasoline availability,” the FAO stated.

Just one fifth of virtually 1,300 massive agribusinesses surveyed by the Ukrainian authorities within the week of March 14 had sufficient gasoline to plant this spring, stated the FAO.

The nation may additionally face shortages of pesticides and fertilisers, the UN company warned.

The agriculture ministry introduced Friday that greater than 150,000 hectares (370,000 acres) of spring crops had been planted, together with corn, soybeans, sunflowers, millet, buckwheat, oats and beets.

Whereas Ukraine has sufficient reserves to cowl its meals safety for one yr, the Russian invasion “dangers making a 30-percent discount in cultivated areas” affecting 100 million folks all over the world, in response to the ministry.

“Russian troops mine fields in Ukraine, blow up agricultural equipment, destroy gasoline reserves wanted for sowing,” President Volodymyr Zelensky stated in a video speech to a discussion board in Doha.

“Our nation has sufficient meals. However the lack of exports from Ukraine will hit a variety of populations within the Islamic world, in Latin America and in different elements of the planet,” he warned.

Able to face Russians

Earlier than the warfare, Ukraine was the world’s fourth largest exporter of corn and was set to grow to be the third largest exporter of wheat after Russia and the USA.

Russia and Ukraine alone account for 30 % of worldwide wheat exports.

US President Joe Biden has warned that meals shortages are “going to be actual” because of the warfare.

On Friday, the European Union launched a programme dubbed the Meals and Agriculture Resilience Mission (FARM) geared toward easing shortages.

Petkov’s farm was no stranger to threats earlier than the warfare.

His workers carried semi-automatic rifles to discourage criminals.

“We already had fields and harvester machines set on hearth,” he stated, citing extortion makes an attempt by “prison or mafia parts”.

“We needed to set up a roadblock on the entrance of the village, which is guarded by 5 – 6 members of the corporate in addition to armed villagers each night time,” Petkov stated.

One in all his associates, Vyatcheslav, who refused to provide his final title, stated the farmers had been able to face the Russians.

“For the second, thank God, the Russian invaders haven’t arrived right here,” stated Vyatcheslav, 45.

“We’ll use these weapons towards them if crucial,” he stated. “However in the mean time they solely serve to guard households and the land, and never let anybody in.”

© Agence France-Presse