February 14 2003, 11:00 Interfax-Ukraine

More than 20 percent of winter crops in Ukraine will have to be reseeded

Ukrainian Centre of Hydro-Meteorology and the Ministry for Emergency Situations consider that unfavourable weather conditions of this winter have given all the ground to speak about an emergency situation in the country's agriculture.

According to an official from the ministry Yuri Kolisnichenko, an icy crust is now covering 40 percent of winter crops plantings throughout Ukraine.

Anatoly Prokopenko - an official from Ukrainian weather centre - has said that the first results of control over the state of the wintering crops, taken on the first days of February, showed that 20 percent of winter crops in Ukraine would have to be reseeded or subjected to supplementary seeding, because of the effects of low temperatures only.

However, he said, the crops had been damaged by not only low temperatures, but also by the icy crust, covering most of the fields in southern and central regions. "The crust has been on fields for 40 days already, reaching a critical limit. Should this line by crossed, 80 to 90 percent of plantings will need to be reseeded or to undergo a substantial degree of supplementary sowing", he said.