Ukrainian farmers are having to tend their fields and care for livestock in wartime conditions.
Millions of farmers have been without power since October, following Russia’s missile attacks on the power grid.
A member of the Global Farmer Network, who farms in central Ukraine, says that farmers still in operation during the conflict have now lost power.
According to Kornelis Huizinga, “We have a few very big nitrogen fertilizer lands in Ukraine and they can’t work now because they don’t have the electricity and gas... Their farmers have been bombed. Dairy farms have been bombed and those guys are not farming anymore. Of course, it’s too dangerous there or their fields are still mined.”
USDA Chief Economist, Seth Meyer says that the Ukrainian War has created turmoil in global ag markets, though farmers have faired pretty well considering the setbacks.
“The invasion caused all kinds of turmoil in commodity prices and input prices and concerns about fertilizer trade. So we had a lot of turmoil on the input and output side. Significant volatility! Producers were able to weather that again, in aggregates despite the significant rise in input prices for 2022. That output prices the ability for producers to get some cash receipts from those crops. Producers gaining some income on those high commodity prices,” he explains.
All together Ukraine has lost about 25 percent of its farmland due to the war.
