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Ukrinform Big harvest of 45 million tons expected, but short of last year’s 54 million-ton record

Ukraine had harvested 1.5 million tons of early grain and grain legumes as of June 30 from an area of 0.6 million hectares (5 percent of the planted area), the Agriculture Ministry's press service said. The grain harvester in the above photograph is busy reaping the crop in Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. In addition to Crimea, grain is already being harvested in Odesa, Mykolayiv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Luhansk, Poltava, Kirovohrad, Zaporizhya and Kyiv regions. Ukraine is expecting a grain crop of nearly 45 million tons, less than last year’s record 54 million ton harvest, but still large compared to harvests in previous years. The average crop yield is a bit down from 2008. Experts say that investment, better use of fertilizers and modern agriculture techniques could help Ukraine boost its crop levels to above 100 million tons within a decade.