KIEV - Farmers in Ukraine's southern regions have sown 65,000 hectares of early spring grain or 3 percent of the initial area as of March 2, the agriculture ministry said on Wednesday.
The area included 50,000 hectares of spring barley and 13,000 hectares of peas, the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry has said the spring grains, mostly maize and barley, could eventually cover about 7.5 million hectares, the same as last year.
Analyst UkrAgroConsult said last month that Ukraine's grain harvest was likely to fall 10 percent to 52.2 million metric tons in 2016 due to a sharp fall in winter wheat output caused by poor weather during sowing.
The wheat harvest is likely to fall to 17.3 million metric tons this year from 24.8 million in 2015, the consultancy said.
