State Statistics Service formally approves use of satellite data for assessing sown areas
The State Statistics Service of Ukraine has formally approved the possibility of using satellite data to assess sown areas and the state of agricultural production, State Statistics Service Head Arsen Makarchuk said in a column for Interfax-Ukraine.
"The war complicates surveys even in government-controlled territory: mining, combat operations, and frontline areas where activity continues, but safe contact with respondents is not always possible. Therefore, we reached a fundamental conclusion: where there is no contact with the respondent, Earth observation methods have no alternative. A satellite image in such conditions can be the only possible source of information about what is growing in the fields," Makarchuk noted.
According to the State Statistics Service, significant changes have occurred in the regions most affected by the war. Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Luhansk, and Kherson regions accounted for 13.6% of the country’s agricultural production in 2021, while in 2025 their share dropped to 1.9%.
The structure of crops also changed—sown areas for soybeans increased by one and a half times, while areas for barley decreased by almost half.
As part of the research, the State Statistics Service compared official data with estimates from five independent suppliers of satellite information.
According to the head of the service, discrepancies between sources were significant: in particular, for sugar beets, the difference ranged from 4% to 69%, for spring barley from 29% to 2.9 times, and for corn from minus 15% to plus 85%.
At the same time, an international research team supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) found that for most crops, estimates based on satellite data diverged from official statistics within the margin of sample survey error.
According to Makarchuk, the satellite method can be sufficiently accurate for crops grown in large fields, but it requires control by statistical authorities.
Makarchuk noted that the State Statistics Service has been testing the use of satellite data since 2019. In this direction, the service cooperates with the World Bank, the Space Research Institute, Statistics Poland, the FAO Investment Center, the EBRD, and the universities of Strasbourg and Maryland.