Farmers sowed three times more fields in the Kherson region this year: more than 70% of the land has already been demined

Watermelon seedlings, photo: NikVesti

In the de-occupied part of the Kherson region, 71% of agricultural land has already been demined. This allowed farmers to triple the area of land sown this year.

Dmytro Butrii, the first deputy head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, told about this during the briefing.

«In the liberated Kherson region, the collection campaign is coming to an end. Our farmers have made significant progress compared to last year. Thanks to large-scale demining of fields, the area of sown land has tripled. Currently, 71% of agricultural lands have been demined. This is about 363 thousand hectares,» said Dmytro Butrii.

He added that this year farmers planted more than 153,000 hectares of land. At the same time, about 190,000 tons of grain and leguminous crops, 23,000 tons of rapeseed, 38,000 tons of sunflowers, 15,000 tons of potatoes, 57,000 tons of vegetables, and 22,500 tons of watermelons and melons were harvested.

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«The crop needs proper storage conditions. Therefore, for this, the farmers of the Kherson and Beryslav districts received almost 100 modular granaries and more than 200 sleeves. This will save up to 140,000 tons of grain in 2024,» added the first deputy head of the RMA.

How is the demining of the Mykolaiv region going on?

Ukraine has recently updated the country's priority demining plan. According to it, more than 512,000 hectares of agricultural land are subject to priority demining, of which 44,000 hectares are in Mykolaiv region.

As of December 2023, 30% of the territory of the Mykolaiv region has been mined. In total, it is 754 thousand hectares of land.

At the same time, they are working on demining in the region. For example, as of October 2023, 13 thousand 40 hectares, including 9 thousand 25 hectares of agricultural land, have been demined in the Mykolaiv region.

Dmytro Komarov, the author of the «World Inside Out.Ukraine» project, visited the mined territories of the Mykolaiv region and showed the work of local sappers. NikVesti also told about a farmer from Kyselivka who is trying to demine his fields on his own.

About 30,000-35,000 hectares of land remain mined in the Bashtanka district of the Mykolaiv region, part of which was under occupation. And in the village of Maksymivka of the Pervomaisk community of the Mykolaiv region, locals live with an unexploded shell under the foundation of the house.

In general, the demining situation in Maksymivka is currently critical. A year after liberation from the Russian occupiers, the village was demined by only 40%.

Read also the article NikVesti «Decades are needed: How the demining process of the Mykolaiv region continues.»

It is known that the company «Demining of Ukraine» has developed a device capable of demining the Mykolaiv region for three months.

It was also reported that by the end of 2024, a third of all demining machines in Ukraine will be Japanese-made.