Russia’s invasion, now in its 15th month, has made Ukraine the world’s most mined country, officials here say. Fields on which farmers once depended are now potential death traps.
U.S. Winter Wheat Condition Improves, While “Ukraine’s Farmers Face Deadly Planting Season”
Reuters writers Julie Ingwersen and Tom Polansek reported yesterday that, “The condition of the drought-hit U.S. winter wheat crop has improved more than analysts expected, while the nation’s corn is in worse shape than last year, U.S. Department of Agriculture data showed on Tuesday.”
The article noted that, “The United States is the world’s No. 2 corn exporter after Brazil. Dryness in parts of the Midwest has raised questions about the crop’s outlook, after the USDA on May 12 projected that corn supplies will rise sharply due to forecasts for a record harvest.
“U.S. corn planting is 92% complete, up from 81% a week ago, the USDA said. That matched analysts’ expectations.
“For soybeans, planting is 83% complete, up from 66% a week ago, the USDA said. Analysts on average expected 82%.”
A separate Reuters article from today reported that, “After the CBOT close, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) first corn condition ratings for 2023 pegged 69% of the U.S. crop in ‘good-to-excellent’ condition, below an average of analyst expectations for 71% and down from 73% a year ago.”
The article pointed out that, “The U.S. government in a weekly crop progress report on Tuesday rated 34% of winter wheat in ‘good-to-excellent’ condition, as of Sunday, up 3 percentage points from last week following rains in the southern Plains. Analysts on average had expected the rating to rise to 32%, according to a Reuters survey.
“For May, wheat is down 7.7%, falling for an eighth month in a row, corn has risen 1.2% after closing sharply lower in April and soybean are down 8.7%, a second month of losses.”
Also yesterday, Dow Jones writer Kirk Maltais reported that, “Weather conditions were dry over the holiday weekend, but not enough to damage plantings. ‘Most farmers would agree that acute May dryness pushed seeding progress and that no yield potential has been lost due to early diminished moisture need of seedlings,’ AgResource said in a note. However, the firm adds, continued dryness like that seen this past weekend will eventually become a negative for the spring crop.”
Regarding U.S. exports, a separate Dow Jones article yesterday reported that, “Inspections of U.S. grain exports were generally on par with totals released last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported.
“In its latest grain export inspections report for the week ended May 25, the USDA said corn export inspections totaled 1.31 million metric tons, soybean inspections totaled 239,736 tons, and wheat inspections totaled 382,031 tons.”
More broadly, Reuters writers Ningwei Qin and Dominique Patton reported today that, “China’s agriculture ministry is urging local authorities to speed up the harvesting and drying of damaged grain, after heavy rain flooded fields of ripe wheat in the country’s most important growing region.”
The article pointed out that, “China, the world’s top wheat grower, had expected a bumper crop this year. But heavy rain across the southern half of central Henan province last week is raising concerns.
“Henan produced 28% of China’s crop of 137 million tonnes in 2021.”
Meanwhile, Kamila Hrabchuk, Anastacia Galouchka and Alice Martins reported in Monday’s Washington Post that, “The war in Ukraine is forcing farmers across the country to make a life-or-death choice: Is planting seeds to put food on the table worth the risk of inadvertently setting off unexploded ordnance?
“In the southern coastal Kherson region, considered some of the country’s most fertile land, farmers sweep their fields for live munitions one careful step at a time. Driving a tractor or plow across is too dangerous.”
The Post writers explained that, “Other farmers are using tractors that can be operated remotely to minimize the danger. Some, having tried to seed fields on their own, have been killed or maimed by mines. Russia’s invasion has caused more than $6.6 billion in damage to Ukraine’s agricultural sector, according to official estimates by Ukraine’s Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food and the Kyiv School of Economics.
“‘When we liberate these territories, we will not be able to use them for agriculture for the next three or four or five months because we’ll need to demine it,’ Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said. He added that Ukraine will be ‘cleaning’ its territory for many years after the war ends: ‘It’s our future.'”
