The difficult weather conditions, which have brought a lot of trouble to Ukraine, will not harm the current grain crop, the national weather center head, Mykola Kulbida, said on Thursday.

"Prospects regarding the harvest of both winter and spring crops are pretty good for Ukraine" Kulbida said, responding to a question on the impact of spring flooding.

According to him, winter crops on all the territory of Ukraine have entered into their growing season, even in the extreme northwest regions: "Their general condition can be assessed as good and very good. And quite a small amount of acreage is in a satisfactory condition, primarily in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions."

Kulbida is sure that the losses will be small - from 5% to 8%. "This is a very small amount, because the average percentage of land that comes out of winter in a poor condition in Ukraine is about 10% per year," he explained, advising not to worry about winter crops: "They are in a good condition. And we can estimate their potential yield 15-20 percent higher than last year."

Regarding spring crops, the weather center head said they suffered from a significant flooding of inundated areas and agricultural land in the Polisia zone. "The delay in sowing of spring crops here will be essential. It will be from 10 to 15 days, at least. And this delay automatically entails a reduction of the future crop by 15-18%," Kulbida summed up, noting that the ministry of agricultural policy and food has already recommended farms in areas where seeding will begin with a delay to sow corn, "high yield of which is guaranteed under any circumstances."

Ukrinform