KIEV - Favorable weather has improved the condition of Ukrainian winter grain crops sown for the 2016 harvest, which were hit by drought this autumn, the Agriculture Ministry said on Friday.
A severe drought in the summer and autumn in half of Ukrainian regions has forced farmers to stop sowing of winter grains, leaving concerns of a poor grain harvest in 2016.
The area of sprouted crops rose to 83 percent as of Dec. 4 from 80 percent as of Nov. 26, the ministry said in a statement.
It said the share of crops in good and satisfactory condition accounted for 66 percent as of Dec. 4 compared with 64 percent as of Nov. 26. It said that the share of poor crops fell to 34 percent from 36 percent.
"The recent precipitation considerably replenished moisture reserves in the soil. This increased the number of areas in good condition," the ministry said.
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Winter wheat dominates Ukrainian winter grain sowings and accounts for about 95 percent of its overall wheat output.
The UkrAgroConsult agriculture consultancy last month cut its forecast for Ukraine's 2016 wheat harvest by about 8 percent to 17.5 million tons, citing the poor condition of sprouted crops.
A smaller harvest is likely to cut Ukrainian wheat exports to 3.5 million tons in 2016/17, according to traders' forecasts.
