The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine informs about this.
The Government of Canada purchased and transferred to Ukraine 140 tons of buckwheat seeds of the Sobo variety from the province of Manitoba. The cargo, registered as humanitarian aid, traveled a long distance of 8,000 km, until it got to the trucks that went to Ukraine in Germany.
The seeds, which are actually distributed by the "International Buckwheat Association", the Skvyrsk grain products plant, and the Union "Boroshnomely of Ukraine", will be delivered to farmers of Zhytomyr, Zakarpattia, Kyiv, Lviv, Poltava, Ternopil, and Chernihiv regions.
The Ministry of Agrarian Policy explains that they bought seeds to overcome the buckwheat shortage this year. Because of the war, the prices of seeds, plant protection products, fertilizers, and fuel increased by about 40 to 45 percent. There is a real risk that it will be unprofitable for buckwheat producers to grow the crop.
"Having received this buckwheat seed, we can support farmers to sow about 2,500 hectares in the west and center of Ukraine. Taking into account the specialization, experience of the farms and the quality of the seeds, the yield from this area will be at least 2 quintals per hectare, or 5,000 tons of buckwheat grains (3,000 tons of processed buckwheat)", - Rodion Rybchynskyi reports.
According to Rodion Rybchynskyi, the main condition for farmers' participation in the seed distribution program is the further transfer of the harvest from the obtained seeds at a fixed price to specialized processors of buckwheat grain, such as the Skvyrsky and Bilotserkivskyi grain processing plants. In turn, grain producers must transfer processed grain at a fixed price to state and social institutions for humanitarian use.