Crimea to harvest twice less grain this year than in 2017
The head of the Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, wrote in a June 22 post on his Facebook page that the average cereal crop yield in the Crimea in 2018 will be half that of the previous year.
"Unfortunately, the average yield this year is 16 centners per hectare for grains, [which is] half as much as last year. Accordingly, the total amount collected last year was 1.7 million tons. This year will be 800,000 tons of grain and legumes," Aksyonov wrote.
According to Aksyonov, 132,000 hectares of cereals have been threshed at present, constituting about 24% of the total crop area. He also added that the Crimea is experiencing problems with winter, spring and fodder crops.
"Winter crop failure has been reported in an area of more than 18,000 hectares; spring crop failure, in an area of about 4,000 hectares. The same situation [has been reported] with fodder crops. Today in the Crimea, in terms of fodder, 6 centners of fodder units are being harvested per livestock unit. The established rate is greater than 17 centners [per unit]. According to the forecast, we can cover58% of our course fodder needs and 15% of our succulent fodder [needs] over the winter period," said the head of Crimea.
An emergency regime was earlier declared in the Crimean regions of Krasnohvardiiske, Nyzhnohirskyi, Pervomaiskyi and Sovetskiy Rayon due to the drought. On June 22, emergency regimes were additionally introduced in the districts of Dzhankoy and Krasnoperekopsk, also due to drought. Russian media, citing Aksyonov, have reported on an emergency regime induced by the drought across the whole peninsula.
At the end of May, Aksyonov said that the damage suffered by Crimean farmers due to the spring drought amounted to more than one billion rubles.
Ukraine had provided up to 85% of the needs of the Crimea in fresh water through the North Crimean Canal, which connects the main channel of the Dnieper with the peninsula. After the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, water supplies to the peninsula were stopped.