A toxic legacy for Ukraine’s breadbasket | – #toxic #legacy #Ukraines #breadbasket
BILOZERKA, UkraineMarch 1 (Reuters) – Ukraine When he recaptured Kherson in November, Andriy Povod returned to find the grain farm in ruins. Two tractors were missing, most of the wheat was gone, and all 11 buildings used to store produce and machinery had been bombed and burned.
On the farm Russia traces of fire and unexploded fields military There is ammunition, but after a year of war of Ukraine Less visible damage to famously fertile soil can be the most difficult to repair.
of Ukraine recaptured in the northeast Kharkiv Scientists who looked at soil samples taken from the province found that high concentrations of toxins such as mercury and arsenic in ammunition and fuel are polluting the soil.
Using samples and satellite imagery, Ukraine According to a study shared with Reuters by scientists from the Institute of Soil Sciences and Agrochemical Research, the war has so far caused at least 10.5 million hectares village They estimated that it degraded the agricultural area.
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This is Europe bread still in the country described as a basket Russia including the territories occupied by their forces village means a quarter of agricultural land.
of Ukraine in the southeast, from the Dnieper River approx 10 27-year-old Povod, walking on his farm near Bilozerka, km (6 miles) away, said, “This is a huge problem for our region. This good land, we cannot reproduce it,” he said. from the front lines of the war.
Twenty experts who spoke to Reuters, including soil scientists, farmers, grain companies and analysts, described Europe’s problems, including pollution, landmines and crumbling infrastructure. bread it said it would take decades to reverse the damage to its basket, and the global food supply could suffer for years. come.
According to scientists, when the tanks compress the earth, soil materials like nitrogen food It destroys the delicate ecosystems of the microorganisms that convert it into substances and makes it difficult for the roots to flourish.
Some experts say some areas have been so mined and physically altered by craters and trenches that they may never return to farm production, as was the case with some World War I battlefields.
LOSS OF DATA
Before the war, Ukraine was the world’s fourth-largest exporter of corn and fifth-largest seller of wheat, and a major supplier to poor countries in Africa and the Middle East that depend on grain imports.
Global grain as Black Sea ports, which normally carry Ukraine’s produce, were closed following Russia’s invasion a year ago prices rose and it is all over the world inflation increased its level.
Svyatoslav Balyuk, director of the Soil Institute, told Reuters that the damage of the war in Ukraine’s potential grain harvest 10–20 million tons, or a third of the pre-war output of 60-89 million tons.
Other factors such as the land farmers cultivate, climate change, use of fertilizers and adoption of new farming technology are also important for production levels.
of Ukraine Village The Ministry of Agriculture declined to comment on soil contamination and long-term damage to the industry.
In addition to land damage, Ukrainian farmers are dealing with unexploded ordnance in many areas, as well as the destruction of irrigation canals, crop silos and port terminals.
Andriy Vadaturskyi, CEO of Nibulon, one of Ukraine’s largest grain producers, said that demining alone He expects it to take 30 years and said urgent financial assistance is needed to keep Ukrainian farmers in business.
“Today there is a problem of high prices, but food is available,” Vadaturskii said in an interview. “But tomorrow, a year from now, if there is no solution, there could be food shortages.”
The Institute has determined that the most productive soil of Ukraine – the so-called chernozem – is suffering the most damage. Chernozem as humus, phosphorus and nitrogen food it is richer in nutrients than other soils and extends to the depth of the soil, up to 1.5 meters.
The institute’s Baliuk said the war’s damage could lead to a frightening loss of productivity.
Increased toxicity and reduced microbial diversity, for example, have already reduced the energy corn seeds can generate to germinate by about 26%, resulting in lower yields, he said, citing the Institute’s research.
ECHOES OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR
A working group of soil scientists established by the Ukrainian government believes that removing all mines and restoring Ukrainian soil to its former health 15 billion will cost dollars.
Baliuk, depending on the type of degradation, this recovery up to three years or 20It may take more than 0.
Some areas will never be recovered if investigations are carried out into the damage caused to the land during the First World War.
USA scholars Joseph Hupi and Randall Schaetzl 20In 06 they coined the term “bombing” to describe the impact of war on the land. Among the invisible damages, they write, bomb ruptures in bedrock or soil layers can change the depth of the water table, depriving vegetation of a shallow water source.
A 2008 paper by Remi de Matos-Machado and Hupy states that some pre-war grain fields and pastures on a former World War I battlefield near Verdun, France, have been left uncultivated for more than a century due to craters and unexploded shells.
Hupi told Reuters that some farmland in Ukraine may never return to production due to pollution and topographical changes. According to Hupi, many other fields will require significant earthworks for land reclamation in addition to large-scale demining.
Naomi Rintoul-Hynes, senior lecturer in soil science and environmental management at Canterbury Christ Church University, has studied soil pollution from the First World War and fears the conflict in Ukraine could cause similar, irreversible damage.
“It is very important that we understand how bad the situation is,” he said.
For example, lead has a half-life of 700 years or more, meaning it can take that long to halve its concentration in soil. Rintoul-Hynes said such toxins can build up in the plants growing there to the extent that they can affect human health.
Rintoul-Hynes said World War I lasted four years and the war in Ukraine only a year so far, but lead remains a key component of many modern munitions.
MINING TRACK
USA of the State Department’s Office of Weapons Clearance Europe According to government data, landmines and other unexploded ordnance cover 26% of Ukraine’s territory. military removing the munitions will likely take decades.
Andriy Pastushenko’s dairy farm in southeastern Ukraine, where he grows cattle feed and sunflowers, is full of craters and former Russian bunkers.
Despite Ukraine retaking the territory in November, Russia forces regularly shelled his farm from across the Dnieper River, opening new holes in his fields and unexploded military scattered the ammunition.
Pastushenko, 39, says: “It will take us months, maybe years, to clean everything up and continue working. We are in the front line of fire, there is no help. If this is a war zone, no one will help.”
Oleksandr Tolokonnikov, the spokesman of the Military Administration of Kherson Region, said that due to the limited number of specialists, the work on demining farms is currently not being carried out in Kherson Region.
With so little help, grain company Nibulon has set up a small unit to clear land of mines in southern Ukraine, a process expected to take decades, Nibulon deputy director Mykhailo Rizak told Reuters.
“This is a very serious problem for Nibulon,” Rizak said.
There is another long-term challenge for Ukraine’s agricultural sector, which before the war accounted for 10% of gross domestic product. Kyiv The School of Economics said in October that it is 35.3 to roads, railways and other infrastructure billion dollars is valued and calculated.
“People think that as soon as there is peace, the food crisis will be solved,” said Caitlin Welsh, director of global food security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “With Ukraine, only infrastructure repairs will take a long time.”
The finances of farmers are also in a desperate situation, says the Ukrainian mayor farmer Dmitry Skornyakov, CEO of HarvEast, said.
Skornyakov said many farmers could survive this year on the income of a good year before the war, but he predicted that half would face serious financial problems if the conflict dragged on until 2024.
“The future is gray to dark right now.”
Reporting by Rod Nickel at Bilozerka; Additional report by Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv; Edited by David Clarke
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Bar Nickel
2023-03-01 10:51:34
Source – reuters
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