Drought threatens Ukraine’s grain harvest: yields could drop by up to 7%
Source: Suspilne
In an urgent update, Taras Vysotskyi, Ukraine’s argicultural interim minister, warned the July drought could cripple the yields of winter wheat and barley.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian farmers are pressing on with the harvest – they have harvested over 4 million tons of grain. According to Vysotskyi’s projections, the drought could see wheat and barley yields 5-7% lost compared to last year.
The most challenging situation is now in Kherson where people deals with both drought and Russian invasion. The irrigation issue remains the most ‘critical’.
The harvest for Ukraine’s grain and oilseed crops is projected to decrease to 74 million tons, down 10% from the 82 million tons harvested in 2023 with weather conditions factoring in.
While 2023 initial forecasts predicted a harvest of 63.5 million tons, the results eventually exceeded expectations by nearly 30%, – it showed how impactful weather can be for crops.
In 2024, the sweltering heat can hurt wheat, barley, and corn, with projected drops of 13.5%, 14%, and 12.5%, respectively. On a brighter note, soybean production is projected to increase by 10.6% as the planting area for them is expanding this year while the acreage for sunflower and rapeseed will remain unchanged.
In my previous column, I wrote about social innovations in Ukraine. Those innovations are part of civic resilience and the democratization of security, which Europe is paying close attention to right now. The EU is trying to work out how to spread responsibility for its own security across society as a whole, rather than leaving it to institutions alone. It is looking for concrete ways to bring ordinary people into the work of defense and resistance.
Petro Poroshenko’s lawyers have appealed to the High Anti-Corruption Court demanding that NABU be obligated to register proceedings regarding the fact of exerting influence on the court and to recognize Petro Poroshenko as a victim in the case of the Deputy Head of the Office of the President, Iryna Mudra, due to her pressure on Supreme Court judges who were considering a lawsuit to overturn sanctions.
Internationally recognized brands and financial institutions should direct capital to Ukraine now, not waiting for the hostilities to end. This was emphasized by Rinat Akhmetov, president of FC Shakhtar, during a working visit to UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, where he met with UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin.
In recent days, Moscow’s official rhetoric has been dominated by hysteria over the decision of…
In 2025, the deadliest year yet for civilians, Ukraine’s three largest charitable foundations raised a record 105.9 billion hryvnias. It is more than the years 2022–2024 combined. According to the UN, humanitarian aid in Ukraine was delivered by more than 450 organisations, reaching five million people over the course of the year. Civic foundations hold licences to purchase lethal weapons, which is a function states have monopolised for centuries. These record sums were underwritten by international government grants, which means foreign states now channel billions directly through Ukrainian civic funds, bypassing inter-state channels. It is hard to imagine a stronger institutional trust in civil society.