Agriculture in Ukraine is one of the most important sectors of the Ukrainian economy. Although typically known as the industrial base of the former Soviet Union, Ukraine is one of the world's largest agricultural producers and exporters and is known as the "breadbasket of Europe". It encompasses about 30 to 40 millions of hectares of agricultural land, similar to Germany and France combined. In addition to providing the country's population with a stable supply of high-quality, safe and affordable food, Ukraine's agriculture sector is capable of making a significant contribution to solving the global problem of hunger. Its production potential significantly exceeds the needs of the domestic market.Про схвалення Стратегії розвитку аграрного сектору економіки на період до 2020 року: Кабінет Міністрів України; Розпорядження, Стратегія від 17.10.2013 № 806-р As such, Ukraine is an important supplier of food (and livestock feed) to North Africa, Asia, and Western Europe.
About 60% of Ukraine's soil used for agriculture consists of chornozem ("black earth"), a humus-rich soil type that is very fertile. Winter wheat, summer barley, and maize are the main cereal crops, while sunflowers and sugar beet are the main crops grown for industrial processing. The country has long been one of the world's largest agricultural exporters. For wheat, sugar beet, rapeseed, cucumber, rye, barley and walnuts, it was among the top 10 agricultural exporting countries in 2020, and for potatoes, buckwheat, cabbage, maize, pumpkin, carrots and sunflower oil, it was even among the top 5.FAOSTAT
Agriculture underwent several major changes in the 20th and 21st centuries. The collectivisation of agriculture in the 1930s and privatisation at the end of the 20th century had particularly significant consequences. The Russo-Ukrainian War since 2014, and especially the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine since 24 February 2022, also had a major impact, as production in parts of the country was greatly reduced. As of May 2024, about 30% of the total potential of the agricultural sector was destroyed, and almost 20% of agricultural land was occupied as a direct result of Russia's war against Ukraine. On the other hand, by 2024, Ukraine's agricultural exports had recovered to pre-war levels.
Land use Agricultural land covers 42 million hectares, or 70% of the country's total land area. 78.9% of agricultural land is arable land and perennial plantations, 13.0% is pastures, 8.4% is hayfields. The highest proportion of arable land is in the Ukrainian regions of the Pontic–Caspian steppe (70–80%) and the East European forest steppe zones. Pastures are concentrated mainly in the Carpathian Mountains, Polissia and the south-eastern steppe regions, while hayfields are located in the river valleys of the Central European mixed forests and East European forest steppe zones.
Crop production Farms use various crop rotation schemes, sometimes with two, sometimes with four or more crops. An example of such a rotation scheme is fallow, winter wheat, winter wheat, sunflowers, spring barley and maize. Fallow is used to maintain moisture levels. Sometimes the same crop is grown for several years in a row, particularly alfalfa (lucerne).
Grains
The main crops in agriculture are cereals: winter and spring wheat, rye, winter and spring barley, maize, oats, buckwheat, millet and rice. Grain farming plays an important role in Ukraine's agricultural sector, ensuring a stable supply of bread and bakery products to the population, as well as raw materials for industrial processing. The production, processing and export of grain in Ukraine generates significant cash flows to the budget and is an important area of employment for the country's population. In addition, the country's grain industry has significant development potential, primarily due to the availability of abundant land resources and a sufficient amount of skilled labour.
Ukraine's main grain crop is winter wheat. The main areas of its cultivation are the forest steppe and the northern steppe regions. Spring wheat has lower yields compared to winter wheat and is mainly grown in the steppe regions of Ukraine with harsher winter conditions and almost no permanent snow cover. After a decline in wheat harvests in the 1990s, yields subsequently increased again. Barley is the second most important grain crop in Ukraine. Spring barley is grown in Polissia, and winter barley in the southern steppe and in the foothills of Crimea. Barley is the most important feed grain in Ukraine, with summer barley accounting for more than 90 per cent of the total. Maize is the third most important feed grain in Ukraine in terms of acreage. The best conditions for its cultivation are in the northern and central steppe and southern forest-steppe. More than half of the maize is used for silage. Most of the rest is used for poultry and pig feed. Winter rye is a valuable food crop. The main areas of its cultivation are Polissia and the western forest-steppe. Oats are common in the same areas as rye and serve as a complementary fodder crop. Sunflower is Ukraine's most important oilseed crop and has long been the most profitable crop. Originally, sunflowers were not grown on the same field more than once every seven years in order to prevent fungal diseases and maintain soil fertility. Later, cultivation became more intensive. Buckwheat has a large area of Ukraine devoted to its cultivation. The largest buckwheat crops are concentrated in Polissia and partly in the forest-steppe region. Millet is mainly grown in the forest-steppe and steppe regions. Rice is grown as a food crop on irrigated land in Mykolaiv, Kherson oblasts and in Crimea.
Potatoes and sugar beets Potatoes are valuable, vitamin-rich food products that are raw materials for the food industry and valuable fodder. In terms of production, potatoes are second only to grain and are used as a food product, for technical processing into alcohol, starch, molasses and as animal feed. The main areas of potato production are Polissia and the forest-steppe of Ukraine, as well as the suburbs of large cities. Sugar beet production and acreage fell by half between 1994 and 2003. The acreage of sugar beet increased on privately owned plots. The main regions for growing sugar beets are the forest-steppe, northern steppe, and southern Polissia.
Vegetables According to the 2024 report by the Center for Food and Land Use Research of the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE), Ukraine produced more cabbages and cucumbers in total in 2021 than any of the top 9 vegetable-producing EU countries (Spain, Poland, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, France, Greece, Romania, and Portugal). Amongst the other three major vegetable crops – tomatoes, onions, and carrots – Ukrainian production volumes were also above the median values of these 9 top EU producer countries in 2021.
Nevertheless, the top EU producers had a higher yield per hectare (and thus higher productivity/effiency) for all five vegetables except cabbage (for which Ukrainian yields per hectare were very close to Italian yields). The gap in yields is highest in tomatoes and cucumbers, which might be explained by the fact that Ukraine has a much larger percentage of these plants grown in the open field rather than in protected greenhouses or polytunnels, as is common in the EU's top-producing countries such as the Netherlands.
Fruit and wine
Ukraine also produces some wine, mostly in the southwestern regions, such as in Odesa Oblast, Zakarpattia Oblast, and Crimea.
Livestock breeding has the place of a kind of ‘processing’ industry that transforms crop products into foodstuffs and technical raw materials. Livestock farming accounts for over 38% of gross agricultural output. Its main branches are cattle breeding, pig breeding, sheep breeding, and poultry farming. Livestock farming also includes , beekeeping, and silk farming. In general, the objectives of animal husbandry are to produce high-quality food products and valuable raw materials for the food industry and light industry. The production process in animal husbandry is more mechanised and contributes to the transition of the industry to an industrial basis.
Production of certain types of livestock products:State Statistics Committee. Production of main types of livestock products All types of meat 1991 — 4.1 million tonnes 1997 — 1.9 million tonnes 2001 — 2.3 million tonnes 2007 — 2.8 million tonnes 2012 — 3.1 million tonnes
Milk 1991 — 22.7 million tonnes 1997 — 13.7 million tonnes 2001 — 13.4 million tonnes 2007 — 12.3 million tonnes 2012 — 11.4 million tonnes
History Geography has long influenced the economy of the Ukrainian lands. Rich fertile soils (such as chornozem areas) made the area a "breadbasket": for ancient Greece, as well as for early modern Europe, later the Soviet Union, and again Europe in the 21st century.
Prehistoric agriculture
The oldest evidence of large-scale agriculture on the modern territory of Ukraine (as well as Moldova and Romania) comes from the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture (abbreviated CT), a Neolithic–Chalcolithic archaeological culture ( 5050 to 2950 BCE). There is still much uncertainty and disagreement amongst scholars of this CT group, ranging from questions about the relative size of these settlements (the standard view being that these may have been home to thousands of people, with maximalists claiming tens of thousands, and minimalists only small-sized villages), their permanence versus their seasonality, and their degree of urbanisation versus agrarian rurality.
Ancient agriculture
Ancient Greek colonies located on the Crimean Peninsula such as Chersonesus, or elsewhere along the northern Black Sea coast such as Pontic Olbia and the Bosporan Kingdom, were net exporters of grain, and to a lesser degree wine. By contrast to southern mainland Greece, there was no cultivation of olive trees on the northern Black Sea shore. Around 550 BCE, more than a century before the traditional foundation date of Chersonesos in 422/1 BCE, the Tauri people already must have engaged in trade with the Greek world, due to the discovery of "Ionian pottery, some rare fragments of Boeotian black figured ware, and Chiot amphorae" in its oldest layers in the 1990s. A large-scale expansion and transformation of agriculture aimed at winemaking in Crimea developed in Chersonesos after 350 BCE. Paleobotanist Zosia Yanushevich and colleagues demonstrated in 1985 that wine production in ancient Chersonesus involved a domesticated variant of the wild grape Vitis vinifera sylvestris. Earlier studies from Yanushevich and Nikolaenko (1979) demonstrated that the Tarkhankut Peninsula in western Crimea was also well-suited for wheat crops, and that Chersonesos dominated the grain trade with western Crimean settlements like Belyaus, Kalos Limen, and Bolshoy/Velykyj Kastel'.
Kievan Rus' ( 880–1240)
Galicia–Volhynia (1199–1349)
Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1349–1569)
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1649)
Cossack Hetmanate (1649–1764)
Ukrainian agriculture in the Russian Empire (1764–1919)
Agriculture in Austrian Eastern Galicia (1772–1918)
Agriculture in Interwar Polish Ukraine (1918–1939)
Interwar Soviet Ukraine (1919–1945)
In the 1930s, under pressure from Joseph Stalin, agriculture became collective in nature, despite resistance from Ukrainian farmers. This reform led to the creation of large state farms and collective farms.
Cold War Soviet Ukraine (1945–1991)
1990s in independent Ukraine