FEATURE - Fertile Ukraine faces drought of cash and rain .
Irene Marushko
BATKIVSHCHYNA COLLECTIVE FARM , Ukraine 1996-08-26
Four shiny new green-and-yellow John Deere combines parked at this 1,750-hectare ( 4,325-acre ) farm in the grain-growing regions south of Kiev do n't fill its chief agronomist with enthusiasm .
" They did a good job this year , but they need good diesel and good engine oil , " said Ivan Odnosum . "
God help us if there is a breakdown , " he said of the machinery , loaned to the farm after the Ukrainian government bought it earlier this year .
The country 's grain harvest this year is forecast to fall by more than 23 percent to only 28 million tonnes and two harsh factors are to blame .
A drought scoured the steppes in May and June , stunting the growing wheat .
And the farming sector , making the painful transition from Soviet central planning to a market economy simply has no money .
Ukraine 's black soil is so fertile that a diplomat described it as " rich enough to grow rubber boots " .
But recently Ukraine has been losing its reputation as a breadbasket of Europe , earned in the years before brutal forced collectivisation under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin .
" The wheat will not be of a good quality this year , " said Hryhory Borsuk , a scientist at the Mironivka Wheat Institute , run by the Ukrainian Academy of Agrarian Sciences .
" The temperature on the ground reached 62 decrees Celsius ( 143.60 Fahrenheit ) this summer .
We 've never seen anything so bad , " he said in an interview in his office , unlit since the government cut off electricity because of unpaid power bills .
The harvest is gathered in the dry areas , but rainfall in Western Ukraine has delayed harvesting there .
While Mironivka 's scientists , some unpaid for months , carry on developing new strains of wheat resistant to Ukraine 's extreme continental climate , Borsuk said the lack of cash in Ukraine 's agricultural sector is as bad as the drought .
Collective farms and Ukraine 's nascent private farming sector have no money for fertiliser , no money for herbicides and pesticides , no money to repair old or buy new machinery , no money for fuel , and none to buy good seed .
This year 's harvest is down from last year 's 36.5 million tonne harvest , which in turn compares with 50 million tonnes in 1990 , the year before independence .
The decline is all the worse for people who recall wasteful Soviet times , when the Kremlin imported grain but priced bread so cheaply that people bought it to feed their pigs .
" Agriculture is very expensive , and there are no solutions to our problems on the horizon , " said Odnosum .
He said his farm , its 260 workers now readying the fields for winter wheat sowing , expected the land to yield 5.2 tonnes per hectare ( 2.5 acres ) but ended up with 3.9 tonnes -- still better than the national average of 2.11 tonnes per hectare this year .
" We did not have money for fertiliser , we 're in debt for fuel , and we 're borrowing diesel , " Odnosum said .
A few kilometres ( miles ) down the two-lane road which passes Odnosum 's farm , where the occasional horse-drawn buggy passes by , is the 1,700-hectare ( 4,200-acre ) Shevchenko collective farm , built next to a village still neat and tidy despite post-Soviet decay .
Chief Accountant Natalya Sypron said the collective is strapped for cash , earlier this year bartering 220 tonnes of grain for diesel to fuel six rickety grain combines and tractors badly in need of repairs and basic maintenance .
The average family earns 160-200 million karbovanets a year ( $ 800 - $ 1,000 ) -- but many have not been paid in months , Soprun said . "
People are working out of their own dedication . "
Borsuk said the farm sector has two options : " We can sit down and cry , or we can do something . "
He said the government plans to increase the sowing of the winter wheat which will be harvested next year .
Planted in late summer and early autumn , the grain is Ukraine 's largest export item and traditionally grows better than summer wheat in Ukraine 's soil .
Further plans , he said , called for full provision of resources like fertiliser and herbicides for 25 percent of Ukraine 's arable land next year , for 50 percent in 1998 and 100 percent of the land in 1999 .
" If we follow this we 'll be able to sell 10 million tonnes of grain by the year 2000 , " Borkus said .
The government has been trying to phase out huge subsidies to the farm sector , and in a move back to pre-Soviet days has given up to 50 hectares ( 124 acres ) of land to some 36,000 private farmers willing to go it alone .
Collective farms will last for the next few years , because most private farms now only produce enough to feed themselves with maybe a little extra to sell , said one private farmer : " In the future , maybe , but it 's better not to hurry .
" Collectivisation brought us a lot of pain .
And it went too fast .
Privatising too quickly can also have a negative outcome . "