Ukraine has lost a quarter of its arable land to war – Agriculture Ministry

UKRAINE: Ukraine has lost a quarter of its arable land since Russia’s invasion, notably in the south and east, the deputy agriculture minister said Monday while insisting that food security is not threatened.

“Despite the loss of 25 percent of arable land, crop planting this year is more than sufficient” to ensure food for the population, Taras Vysotskiy told a news conference.

He said national consumption levels had fallen “due to mass displacement and external migration” as millions fled to escape the fighting.

More than seven million people are estimated to have been displaced within Ukraine by Russia’s war, figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) show.

But another 7.3 million have fled abroad, more than half of them to Poland.

Despite the significant loss of land to the Russians, “the current situation of crop planting areas.. does not pose a threat to Ukraine’s food security,” he said.

“Ukrainian farmers managed to prepare relatively well for sowing before the war started,” he said.

“In February, Ukraine had already imported about 70 percent of necessary fertilisers, 60 percent of disease control products and about a third of the required fuel” for sowing, he said.Before the war, Ukraine had more than 30 million hectares of arable land, according to the international NGO World Data Center-Ukraine.

– NDTV