Ukraine has lost a quarter of its arable land since Russia’s invasion, especially in the south and east, the deputy agriculture minister said on Monday, saying there was no threat to food security.
“Despite the loss of 25 percent of arable land, crop planting this year is more than enough” to ensure food for the population, Taras Vysotsky told a news conference.
He said national consumption levels had fallen “due to mass displacement and outbound migration” as millions fled to escape fighting.
It is estimated that more than seven million people have been displaced within Ukraine From Russia’s war, figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) show.
But another 7.3 million have fled abroad, more than half of whom have fled to Poland.
Despite the significant loss of land to the Russians, “the current state of the crop planting areas .. does not pose a threat to Ukraine’s food security,” he said.
“Ukrainian farmers managed to prepare for sowing relatively well before the start of the war,” he said.
“In February, Ukraine had already imported about 70 percent of the fertilizers needed for sowing, 60 percent of the disease control products and about a third of the fuel needed,” he said.
However, the invasion of several regions by Russian troops and the ongoing blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, halting grain exports, were forcing Ukrainian farmers to “change what they were sowing and how much,” Vysotsky said.
International NGO. According to the U.S., before the war, Ukraine had more than 30 million hectares of arable land. World Data Center-Ukraine.
Despite Vysotskiy’s assurances that the war was not a threat to Ukraine’s domestic food supply, the United Nations warned of conflict risks leading to food insecurity for millions of people worldwide, along with risks of malnutrition, mass hunger and famine Is.
Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said about 20-25 million tons of grain are currently blocked in Ukrainian ports, a figure that could rise to 70-75 million tons by autumn.
Before the war, Ukraine was the world’s fourth largest supplier of wheat and maize.
Between them, Russia and Ukraine produce 30 percent of the global wheat supply.
read all breaking news , today’s fresh news watch top videos And live TV Here.