NASA: Russia controls 22% of Ukraine’s farmland

July 1 () –

Data from Planet Labs satellites and ESA’s Sentinel-2 mission analyzed by NASA Harvest, show the distribution of summer and winter crops in Ukraine as of June 13.

About 22 percent of Ukraine’s farmland, including 28 percent of winter crops and 18 percent of summer crops, is under Russian control, according to NASA Harvest analysis.

Summer crops, mainly corn and sunflower, are grown more in the north and west of Ukraine than winter crops. Data on land occupation comes from the Institute for the Study of War and the Critical Threats Project of the American Enterprise Institute.

The NASA Harvest team, with international partners from the GEO Global Agricultural Monitoring (GEOGLAM) initiative, measure multiple environmental factors, including precipitation, soil moisture and temperature, to assess crop health and anticipate yields at the end of the season.

“After a slow start in spring due to dry weather and a cold snap, growing conditions have been mostly favorable and crops recovered nicely,” he said. it’s a statement Becker-Reshef on cultivation in Ukrainian soil.

Before the war, Ukraine provided 46% of world exports of sunflower oil, 9% of wheat exports, 17% of barley and 12% of corn in world markets, according to data from the US Foreign Agricultural Service (Ukraine and Russia together accounted for 73 percent of exports of sunflower oil, 33 percent of wheat and 27 percent of barley). The last few months have interrupted that flow of food.

“We are in the early stages of an ongoing food crisis that will likely affect every country and person on Earth in some way,” said Becker-Reshef. For some populations, this could mean higher prices or lost items at the supermarket. For others, history suggests it could mean more acute food shortages.