Connect with us

News

Ukraine’s harvest becomes the new battlefield, as fires blacken its arable heartlands

Published

on

Ukraine’s harvest becomes the new battlefield, as fires blacken its arable heartlands

The battle’s entrance strains straddle a few of Ukraine’s richest farmland. Whether or not brought on by accident or intention, the fires darkening the summer time sky are consuming right into a harvest that was at all times going to be robust to gather and even harder to export.

Pavlo Serhienko is within the crosshairs of this battle. The 24-year-old is the third era of his household to run a farm within the Vasylivka district of Zaporizhzhia. Since his father died from coronavirus, Serhienko is managing the three,000-hectare farm on his personal.

However almost half the land is now too harmful to domesticate, he instructed CNN on Saturday.

“We won’t even get there. It’s both mined or close to the occupied territories, actually the entrance line. We had occupiers on a part of the fields.”

Serhienko has actually seen his household’s enterprise go up in smoke.

Advertisement

“For the final 4 days, all our knees are lined in blood, we’re extinguishing [fires in] the fields. They [the Russians] particularly hit the fields — fields with wheat and barley — on daily basis.”

He stated previously few days he had misplaced 30 hectares of wheat, and 55 hectares of barley. And “these 1,200 hectares I can not attain are additionally burning. However what can I do? I will not even go there.”

The sowing season was simply as harmful. “We sowed a discipline of 40 hectares. We needed to go away the sector 4 occasions to complete it. Each time we left, they shelled the place immediately. As soon as there have been 23 mortar hits.”

The farm's buildings and equipment have also been hit.

His buildings and tools have additionally been hit — the animal farm and all of the warehouses constructed over the previous 20 years have been destroyed.

“The planter was crushed, the winter workshop, the place we restore tractors and combines, was additionally smashed.”

There are tons of of farmers in an identical plight. Many possible face chapter.

Focused assaults

Advertisement

Ukrainian officers are in little question that a part of Russia’s technique is to destroy Ukraine’s agricultural wealth.

Final week, police within the southern Kherson area, certainly one of Ukraine’s best arable areas, opened felony proceedings over “the purposeful destruction” of crops by the Russian army.

The police accused Russian forces of “shelling agricultural land with incendiary shells. Giant-scale fires happen on daily basis, tons of of hectares of wheat, barley and different grain crops have already burned.”

“As a way to save no less than a part of the harvest, the villagers work on equipment subsequent to a wall of fireplace,” the police stated.

Buildings on Pavlo Serhienko's farm have been hit by artillery.

As soon as the fires begin, there’s little likelihood of extinguishing them. Many contested areas are with out piped water, and it is typically too harmful to attempt to sort out the blazes.

Kherson police allege that “the Russians intentionally don’t permit anybody to extinguish the fires,” citing a fireplace that burned 12 hectares and adjoining pine forests within the occupied space across the village of Rozlyv.

Advertisement
Opinion: All Ukrainian children know to 'never leave breadcrumbs on the table'

The lively entrance strains within the battle stretch for greater than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) — principally via farmland. Within the Donetsk area, Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the regional army administration, stated that “the enemy started to make use of the tactic of destroying fields the place the harvesting is ongoing.”

Ukrainian emergency companies posted photographs of fires that had swept via Donetsk farmland final week.

Ihor Lutsenko, a former member of Parliament now within the army, posted a picture exhibiting a considerable fireplace south of Bakhmut, an space of Donetsk that is underneath nearly fixed assault. “The fields are on fireplace right here,” Lutsenko instructed CNN final week. “We witnessed the Russians launch incendiary munitions. That is to burn out our positions.”

The picture was reposted by the Protection Ministry, which added: “It’s not Ukrainian wheat that’s on fireplace, it’s the meals safety of the world that’s on fireplace.”

A little bit additional west, the town council in Kramatorsk — an space that’s coming underneath growing Russian fireplace — additionally posted photographs of scorched fields, some with the remnants of Russian rockets nonetheless current. It stated 35 hectares of crops had been destroyed within the newest fires.

Ukrainian servicemen ride on military vehicles at a front line on July 8 amid Russia's attack on eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region.

Battle on a number of fronts

The summer time harvest is simply getting underway, so it isn’t but doable to evaluate the general harm brought on by fires. On Friday, the Agriculture Ministry stated farmers had gathered within the first million tons of grain of the 2022 season from simply over 400,000 hectares — however that represents simply 3% of the sowing space.

Advertisement

In addition to the fires, Ukrainian farmers face a number of challenges. These near the entrance strains should cope with the danger of harvesting and an absence of satisfactory storage. Dozens of silos and among the largest export terminals have been destroyed by Russian bombardment. One of many largest — within the southern metropolis of Mykolaiv — contained some 250,000 tons of grain earlier than being burned in June.

Moreover, some analysts say there are challenges in acquiring diesel gas due to the destruction of refineries, which means that some crops will not be harvested.

Vehicles and essential equipment on Pavlo Serhienko's farm have been destroyed by the shelling.

Wherever they’re, farmers face a logistical nightmare in exporting their grain and oilseed as a result of Black Sea ports are primarily sealed off. The UN Meals and Agriculture Group has launched an emergency $17 million program to assist overcome storage issues. The US has additionally pledged to help with the erection of momentary silos in Poland, which borders Ukraine to the west.

Even earlier than the fires, Ukraine had forecast a pointy drop within the harvest of grain and oilseed this yr, in comparison with the file output of final yr.

Final week, Ukraine’s grain merchants’ union stated it anticipated a grain and oilseed harvest of 69.4 million tons, marginally larger than earlier forecasts however far under the 106 million tons harvested final yr.

Agriculture Minister Taras Vysotskiy stated the grain harvest may very well be no less than 50 million tons, in comparison with 86 million tons in 2021. At the very least half that output is earmarked for export, in keeping with the merchants’ union.

Advertisement

The manufacturing and export of wheat in an already tight international market could also be most in danger. French consultancy Agritel stated final week it expects Ukraine to reap 21.8 million tons of wheat this summer time in comparison with 32.2 million final yr.

Why Russia is being accused of using food as a weapon of war

Marketing consultant Dan Basse of the Chicago-based AgResource consultancy instructed the podcast AgriTalk late in June that due to logistical challenges he doubts Russian exports could make up for the shortfall of Ukrainian wheat, and the world market could also be in need of about 10 million tons of wheat this yr.

After a latest dip, wheat costs are near their highest ranges for the yr.

A few of what would have been Ukrainian produce is now in territory held by the Russians and their allies within the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk Folks’s Republics (DPR and LPR). The chief of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, stated final week that the wheat harvest there can be a lot larger than in 2021.

Pushilin posted images of conferences with farmers and stated they’d mentioned “the sale of merchandise.” He has additionally stated that the DPR plans to make use of the port of Mariupol to export the harvest.

Agritel estimates that as much as 3.7 million tons of wheat may very well be harvested from some southern and jap areas underneath Russian management. Russian operators are going to nice lengths to disguise the origins of the wheat in an effort to promote it overseas. They’re transferring grain at sea in an obvious effort to disguise its origin, in keeping with satellite tv for pc imagery reviewed by CNN, and service provider ships are turning off their transponders.

What’s unclear is whether or not Russian-backed authorities in occupied areas are paying market costs for the produce. Ukrainian officers have stated that, in some areas, the Russians are insisting on steep reductions. There’s anecdotal proof that some Ukrainian farmers have most popular to not harvest in any respect.

Advertisement

‘Cynical technique’

Ukrainian International Minister Dmytro Kuleba stated final week that Russia had a “well-thought and cynical technique” to destroy Ukraine’s agriculture.

'It's getting scary.' How the war in Ukraine plunged this Middle East nation into crisis

“The Russian naval blockade of Ukrainian ports has already shredded international chains of meals provide,” Kuleba stated. “Including insult to damage, Russia steals Ukrainian grain and bombs Ukrainian granaries.”

“Russia is actually enjoying starvation video games with the world by retaining the naval blockade of Ukrainian ports with one hand and shifting the blame for it on Ukraine with the opposite hand,” Kuleba added.

Russian International Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused Ukraine of inflicting the paralysis of service provider delivery by mining coastal waters. Negotiations on secure passage for service provider ships, brokered by Turkey, have but to yield any progress.

It is not simply this yr’s harvest that is in jeopardy. Impartial farmers comprise a lot of the agriculture sector in Ukraine, and so they haven’t got deep pockets.

Advertisement

Basse, of AgResource, instructed AgriTalk: “Financing is operating out. I’ll let you know that as I speak to my mates and purchasers, we may have farmers that go bankrupt. After which after all, as that occurs, we’ll actually have points with the following wheat crop and the following corn crop. So I am really extra involved about 2023 manufacturing than I’m about 2022.”

So is Serhienko, who says a mixture of the ports closing, larger transport prices and decrease costs imply “there isn’t any query” his revenue will vanish this yr. He estimates his losses to this point at some $10 million, when it comes to misplaced output and destroyed infrastructure, and would not know whether or not the household farm will survive into 2023.

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

News

Israel marks first anniversary of Hamas attacks

Published

on

Israel marks first anniversary of Hamas attacks

This article is an on-site version of our The Week Ahead newsletter. Subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every Sunday. Explore all of our newsletters here

Hello and welcome to the working week.

It is going to be a difficult start to the next seven days for many as Israel marks the first anniversary of the Hamas attacks when more than 1,200 people were killed and 251 people were taken hostage. Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and military leaders hit back and the conflict has escalated over the past 12 months.

But on Monday, people will stop to remember. Thousands of Israelis are expected to pay their respects at the Nova Music Festival memorial, the location of a rave where Hamas killed 364 and kidnapped 44 partygoers and staff a year ago. Others will travel to Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, where families and supporters have campaigned for the release of those taken. Memorials will be held in various communities that lost neighbours and relatives in the attacks, notably Kibbutz Be’eri, where more than 100 people were killed and 32 taken hostage.

On a more uplifting track, this week will bring rolling announcements on the winners of this year’s six Nobel Prizes. Given the war in the Middle East and beyond, interest in the Peace Prize, announced on Friday, is likely to be high.

Advertisement

The corporate world takes up a lot of the news diary slack this week as we find ourselves deep in the earnings season. The big moment will be the Wall Street banks, which begin reporting on Friday. I’m not sure they will be mentioning this, but I’d recommend reading the excellent analysis of the rise of secretive trading firms such as Jane Street and Citadel Securities by US banking editor Joshua Franklin.

And then there is the long-awaited Robotaxi launch event by Tesla in Los Angeles on Thursday. What will they cost? When will they be ready to hit the streets? And does this mean Tesla owners can list their cars to be used for ride-hailing? All important questions.

Economic data is on the thin side this week, with US and German inflation figures and a UK monthly GDP estimate about the best of it. More details below.

One more thing . . . 

The matter of Parkrun is also a cause of division, but thank you to everyone who got in contact about it to share your passion for getting your running shoes on or about other group outdoor pursuits. Saturday will bring an outdoor event I could get into: The Peckham Conker Championships. Organisers are promising a 22-carat golden conker — I think it may be spray painted — but it does sound fun.

I’m interested in your priorities for the week ahead. Drop me a line at jonathan.moules@ft.com or, if you are reading this from your inbox, hit reply. And have a good week.

Advertisement

Key economic and company reports

Here is a more complete list of what to expect in terms of company reports and economic data this week.

Monday

  • Germany: August manufacturing, new orders and sales index

  • UK: Halifax House Price Index

  • Results: Ferrexpo Q3 production report, Grainger trading statement, Repsol trading statement, Shell Q3 quarterly update

Tuesday

  • October Prime Day, a global ecommerce shopping event by Amazon, offering deals to its Prime members in 19 countries

  • Germany: August industrial production index

  • UK: British Retail Consortium-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor

  • Results: Imperial Brands pre-close trading update, OMV Q3 trading update, PepsiCo Q3, S&U HY, Unite Group trading update, XP Power Q3 trading update

Wednesday

  • Witan Investment Trust hold a second general meeting of shareholders to vote on the proposed winding-up of the company and combination with Alliance Trust. If approved, the deal is expected to complete shortly after the meeting by means of a voluntary liquidation of the company and combination of the two companies to create Alliance Witan

  • US: Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes published

  • Results: CMC Markets HY pre-close trading update, Marston’s trading update

Thursday

  • Tesla due to unveil its Robotaxi, a launch event postponed, according to post on X (formerly Twitter) by chief executive Elon Musk, because of a design change

  • UK: Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Residential Market Survey

  • US: September consumer price index (CPI) inflation rate data

  • Results: Delta Air Lines Q3, Domino’s Pizza Q3, Fast Retailing FY, Liontrust Asset Management HY trading update, Seven & i Holdings Q2, Tata Consultancy Services Q2, Treatt FY trading update, Volution Group FY

Friday

  • Germany: final September CPI and Harmonized Consumer Price Index inflation rate measures

  • UK: August GDP estimate

  • US: September producer price index (PPI) inflation rate data. Plus, University of Michigan consumer sentiment index

  • Results: Bank of New York Mellon Q3, BlackRock Q3, Hays Q1 trading update, JPMorgan Chase Q3, Jupiter Fund Management Q3 trading update, Wells Fargo Q3

World events

Finally, here is a rundown of other events and milestones this week.

Monday

  • Israel: first anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel that caused more than 1,200 deaths with hundreds taken hostage

  • Laos: Asean Business and Investment Summit bringing together more than 1,000 CEOs and senior executives with world leaders begins, running alongside the Asean Summit

  • Philippines: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol meets President Ferdinand Marcos Jr for bilateral talks in Manila. The two are expected to sign an agreement and issue joint statements after the meeting

  • Sweden: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine announced, the first of several science prizes that will be given out over the coming todays. Tomorrow is physics, followed by chemistry on Wednesday

Tuesday

  • Luxembourg: Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) meeting of EU finance ministers.

  • UK: Alexander Darwall and his wife Diana Darwall bring an appeal against the decision of the UK Court of Appeal that the Dartmoor National Park Authority can allow wild camping in the national park. The Darwalls own the 4,000-acre Blachford Estate in Dartmoor and previously won a High Court case ruling that there was no right to wild camp on Dartmoor without the landowner’s permission. The Court of Appeal overturned that decision

  • US: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump participates in a town hall presented by Spanish-language network Univision

Wednesday

  • 150th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union under the Treaty of Bern, which unified a complex maze of postal services and regulations into a single postal territory and allowed for the growth of global post deliveries

  • Mozambique: presidential and parliamentary elections

  • UK: Conservative MPs start voting to determine the final two candidates vying to become the party’s next leader, after Rishi Sunak announced his resignation in the wake of the party’s heavy general election defeat. The outcome is announced tomorrow. Party members will then vote on these two options

Thursday

  • World Mental Health Day, raising public awareness about mental health issues

  • Sweden: Nobel Prize for Literature announced

  • UK: Unleashed, a memoir of former prime minister Boris Johnson, is published. The pre-publication publicity promises revelations on campaigning for Brexit, how he nearly died from Covid-19, bikes, buses and the London Olympics

  • US: President Joe Biden begins trip to Germany and Angola

  • US: Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris participates in a town hall presented by Spanish-language network Univision

Friday

  • Greece: government due to present a revised national climate plan, with more ambitious targets for the share of renewable power in its electricity mix and lower carbon emissions

  • Sweden: Nobel Peace Prize winner announced

Saturday

  • Spain: National Day, aka Dia de la Hispanidad, commemorating the day in 1492 when Christopher Columbus caught sight of the New World. Includes annual military parade in Madrid

  • UK: Peckham’s annual conker championship returns

Sunday

  • China: publishes September CPI and PPI inflation rate figures

  • Lithuania: parliamentary elections

  • UK: Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s first 100 days in office

  • US: John Donahoe retires as Nike president and chief executive. Elliott Hill succeeds him tomorrow

Recommended newsletters for you

Inside Politics — What you need to know in UK politics. Sign up here

US Election countdown — Money and politics in the race for the White House. Sign up here

Advertisement
Continue Reading

News

In Queens, N.Y., an immigrant street vendor is forced to confront crippling shyness

Published

on

In Queens, N.Y., an immigrant street vendor is forced to confront crippling shyness

Luis Beltran sells ice cream at Flushing Meadows Park in Queens.

Wendy Correa for NPR


hide caption

toggle caption

Advertisement

Wendy Correa for NPR

When we met, Luis Beltran was standing in a crowd, looking a little shell-shocked, holding an ice cream.

“People in the city can be so rude,” he said.

It was still summer, and we were in the middle of one of the largest parks in New York City: Flushing Meadows Park in Queens. As the heat winds down, NPR has been interviewing parkgoers about life as recently arrived immigrants.

Advertisement

This park is a great place to hear all kinds of stories. Queens is traditionally a hub for immigrants from all parts of the world, and thousands of people come here every weekend. On that summer day, there was live music, and food vendors selling goodies at the top of their lungs. Which is exactly what Beltran was trying to do for the first time: sell some ice cream.

But when he got there, he froze. (No pun intended.)

The thing is, Beltran is very shy.

“Especially around women,” he said, laughing and looking down. Beltran is 23 years old. He’s short and stocky, a handsome guy.

Originally from Ecuador, he left home about a year ago. He says he paid a coyote, a guide to migrants, to bring him up through Central America and Mexico, all the way to the U.S. border. It cost about $20,000.

Advertisement

This is not an uncommon fee for that journey: Migrants often sell everything they own and get deep in debt to pay for the trek north. Coming to the U.S. is expensive,” said Beltran.

Beltran is among the more than 200,000 migrants who have arrived in New York City since 2022, according to local government. Like many of them, although he is in the immigration system, he doesn’t have work authorization. This is a problem because he owes money to that coyote, who knows where his family lives.

La deuda, the debt, is a frequent topic of conversation among recently arrived immigrant communities.

“I think about how to pay la deuda,” Beltran said.

He got a job in construction. Then one day, he picked up a book called Atomic Habits, by James Clear. “It teaches you how to take more risks, be more open, be more of a businessman. Challenge yourself.”

Advertisement

Beltran finished the book and decided to come to the park and sell ice cream. Specifically, helados de salcedo, an Ecuadorian-style popsicle.

But when he got here this morning, he got nervous.

When we met, he was just standing there quietly, a now-dripping ice cream cone in hand, as if holding a white surrender flag.

He said he was thinking about his aunt. When he was a kid, he used to sell flowers with her on the street. He was already very shy back then, and one day she told him: “Luis, you can’t afford to be shy.”

So he says this morning when he got to the park, he came up with a mantra: “Send money to cancel the debt. Cancel the debt. Cancel the debt. Keep going. Keep fighting.”

Advertisement

Beltran’s eyes light up a little as he says it aloud. He takes a deep breath and yells:

Helados de lado de salcedo, helados de sabores, helados, helados, helados no se quede con las ganas. (Salcedo ice cream! All kinds of flavors! Ice cream! Don’t hesitate to get yours!)”

As he shouts it, he smiles for the first time since we met.

Continue Reading

News

Video: The Fight for Rural America

Published

on

Video: The Fight for Rural America

One in five Americans identifies as rural, and since the 1960s, their votes have become increasingly Republican. Astead W. Herndon, a politics reporter and the host of the New York Times podcast “The Run-Up,” examines how Republicans expanded their rural advantage to historic levels and whether Democrats can remain competitive.

Continue Reading

Trending