Farmers work in the midst of danger in bulletproof vests and hire specialists to clear mines and ordnance
Wheat harvest in Ukraine .. between lack of fuel and fear of bombing
Sergey Lyubarsky: We can wait until August 10 at the latest.
AFP
Ukraine is a major wheat producer in the world.
AFP
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Farmer Sergey Lyubarsky stands in one of his huge wheat fields in southeastern Ukraine, wondering how he will be able to harvest his crops, given the lack of fuel and the threat of Russian bombing.
“Harvest usually starts on July 15, but diesel is expensive, if any,” says Lyubarsky.
His old harvester is parked on his farm in the town of Ray Oleksandryvka, near positions held by Russian forces on the other side of the hill, about 30 kilometers west of Lugansk.
Lyubarsky cultivates 170 hectares of land, most of which produces wheat, but also barley and sunflowers, all of which are grains whose prices have risen in world markets, especially since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which is a major producer of wheat in the world, but he was forced to leave 40 hectares fallow.
"We couldn't buy corn seeds, because the war had started" at the end of February, and it took up to two months for the imported seeds to arrive.
He explains that the land that is not currently cultivated is "partly used by the army to store military equipment." He points to a nearby hill and says: "Look, the Russian soldiers are there, eight kilometers away."
As for wheat, time is running out.
"We can wait until August 10 at the latest, but after that date, the grains will wither and fall to the ground," says Lyubarsky.
matches
Another farmer, Anatoly Moiseenko from the same town, also thinks things are uncertain.
Although he has enough diesel to harvest his wheat, he worries about the progress of the fighting.
"The problem is the war," he says.
Will the harvest be possible, or will the missiles fall again?”, as Ukrainian soldiers removed the warhead of a missile that had apparently fallen in his field.
He adds with a smile that harvesting is "a bit like playing poker."
In the neighboring town of Reznikivka, Yaroslav Kokhan learns that he has already lost 40 hectares of his wheat farm.
Usually, his son cares about the harvest, he says, because this 61-year-old retiree no longer uses a tractor or combine harvester.
But in 2014, his son went to live in Krasnodar in southern Russia, the same year Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine, following a popular uprising in Kyiv.
Kochan recounts that his son used to come by car several times a year to sow wheat and weeds, then harvest it.
But this year, “he was due to come to Ukraine on February 25, which is his birthday, but the war broke out the day before,” he adds.
So he didn't come.
Had that happened, he would not have been able to return to his family home in Russia, because Ukrainian males between the ages of 18 and 60 cannot leave the country due to military conscription.
What will become of his wheat?
"I think a match will do," Kochan says sadly, looking at the field behind his house.
For his part, Liubarsky still hopes to be able to harvest his wheat, and thinks of the sunflowers due to be harvested in September. "By then, I hope he'll have peace!"
More than 200 million people in the world suffer from severe hunger, according to the United Nations, which fears a new "famine cyclone" due to the sharp rise in food prices since the beginning of the conflict.
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