Russian forces have occupied about 22 percent of Ukraine’s farmland since the Feb. 24 invasion, affecting a key supplier to the global grain and cooking oil markets, NASA said Thursday.
Satellite data analyzed by US space agency scientists shows that by occupying eastern and southern Ukraine, Russia controls land that produces 28 percent of the country’s winter crops, mostly wheat, canola, barley and rye, and 18 percent of summer crops, mostly corn and sunflowers.
War’s disruption to harvesting and planting — including farmers fleeing war, labor shortages and shelling-scarred fields — could have a severe impact on global food supplies, NASA scientists have said.
“The breadbasket of the world is at war,” said Inbal Becker-Reshef, director of NASA’s Harvest program, which uses US and European satellite data to study global food production.
According to US data, before the war Ukraine supplied 46 percent of the sunflower oil traded on world markets, 9 percent of wheat, 17 percent of barley and 12 percent of corn.
Russia’s invasion has blocked food exports from Odessa, the main Black Sea port, and destroyed storage and transport infrastructure in some areas.
That means farmers across the country, but especially in occupied territories, have fewer opportunities to store and get their produce to market.
And it also threatens the sowing of winter crops in the fall.
“We are in the early stages of an ongoing food crisis that is likely to affect every country and person on earth in some way,” Becker-Reshef said.
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