11:58 26.03.2013

Recent heavy snowfalls no threat to winter crops, says weather center

2 min read
Recent heavy snowfalls no threat to winter crops, says weather center

The recent heavy snowfalls in northwest and central regions of Ukraine will not harm winter crops, the head of the agrometeorological department of the Ukrainian Weather Center, Tetiana Adamenko, has said.

She told Interfax-Ukraine that present weather would postpone the start of their vegetation and the terms of the spring sowing campaign.

"The resumption of vegetation, the start of growth of winter crops in northwest regions will start in the first ten days of April, maybe, in the north it will be later. This is not an anomaly, the said situations for Ukraine are not rare," Adamenko said.

She said that when snow starts melting with warm weather on March 30, water stagnation on fields would be seen.

"There is a lot of snow in western regions, and when it starts melting, of course, there will be water stagnation on the fields. Their harmfulness to the crops depends on how long it lasts – how quickly the soil absorbs moisture," the expert said, adding that given the fact that frost has not penetrated into the soil, the process will not be delayed.

Adamenko said that in some southeast regions (Crimea, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, Odesa and Mykolaiv regions), where vegetation of winter crops has started, the fall in temperatures to minus 7-10 centigrade will last for a short period of time and will be "painless."

As for the spring sowing campaign, Adamenko said that due to a large amount of moisture in soil, field works in some regions should be postponed for one or two weeks, but no more than the middle of April.

"These are not extreme terms as well," she said.

As reported, referring to the Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry of Ukraine, as of March 22, 2013, Ukraine sowed early spring grain and leguminous crops on 660,000 hectares, which is 22% of the forecast.

In Crimea early spring grains were sowed on 95,500 hectares, in Odesa region 175,000 hectares, Kherson region 170,000 hectares, Zaporizhia region 140,900 hectares, Mykolaiv region 80,200 hectares, Dnipropetrovsk region 9,400 hectares, and Donetsk region 7,400 hectares.

AD
AD
AD
AD
AD