I probably have
better things to do than writing about Ukraine’s buckwheat crop but I find it oddly fascinating.
To recap, a couple
of weeks back Ukraine’s Minister of Agriculture held a conference call with all
his regional Heads of Administration and instructed them to instruct farmers to
plant an additional 50,000ha of the crop.
When that failed he
went on to instruct the PJSC Agrarian Fund to forward buy buckwheat in an
attempt stimulate farmers to plant more crop.
On the face of it
this seems to have worked as plantings have increased from 118kha to 125kha with one dutiful comrade reporting he plans to sow a further 16.7kha before the season is out.
Actually what probably
happened is the regional Heads shouted and threatened farmers into getting their drills out again.
Yesterday the
Ministry announced on its website plans to initiate a state support programme to
increase the area of buckwheat plantings which, in their words, every year due
to low profitability, declines.
Wouldn't it be
better to let it decline which would then increase the price which would then
stimulate farmers in to planting more and presumably find some sort of market balance
or am I oversimplifying farming?
Over the last couple
of weeks buckwheat has featured prominently on the agenda of the Minister of
Agriculture who seems to have taken a personal interest in micro-managing the crop.
I would have thought
that given the current situation in Ukraine he would have other priorities over
planting buckwheat which only seems to be a problem in the minds of the
Ministry who keep telling everyone it’s a problem.
No doubt the saga
will continue.