2024 in Russia was marked by a decrease in the area under grain crops with a parallel increase in these areas under oilseeds.
The total area under the main crops in the current season has decreased by 1 million hectares, according to the latest data from Rosstat.
If a year ago it was 81 million hectares, now it is about 80 million hectares. These data do not take into account the new regions of the Russian Federation.
At the same time, the area under grain and leguminous crops has decreased significantly. In the previous year, it was about 48 million hectares, but now it has decreased to 46 million hectares.
Of these, about 29 million hectares are for wheat, the sowing of which also decreased by 1 million hectares, 7 million hectares — for barley, 2.6 million hectares — for corn.
In addition, the sowing of rye, oats, buckwheat, millet has decreased. At the same time, the area under rice has increased slightly.
As for oilseeds, a fundamentally different situation can be observed here.
In particular, the total area under oilseeds has closely approached 19 million hectares, which is approximately 1 million hectares more than in the previous season.
Sunflower crops have decreased slightly, the same can be said about mustard. However, the area under soybeans, rapeseed, and oil flax has increased.
As for vegetables, the area under them has not changed much, generally remaining at last year’s levels.
For example, the area under sugar beet has increased by about 100 thousand hectares, while under potatoes it has decreased by 60 thousand hectares.
At the same time, in different Russian districts we can observe different reductions in the area under crops.
For example, in the Volga Federal District they have decreased very slightly, by only 0.1%. By the way, this district is also the leader in terms of total sowing area in the country.
In many other regions, the decline in sowing is more significant.
In the Central District, we are talking about a decrease of 1.3%, in Siberia — 2.2%, in the South — 1.2%, in the Urals — 3.1%.
The Far Eastern Federal District set a kind of anti-record, since the sowing area there decreased by a significant amount at once — 3.8%.
Experts say that one of the possible reasons for the reduction in the area under grain crops in favor of oilseeds is unfavorable weather conditions, which led to the death of winter crops.
According to Rosstat, the area of winter crops lost this season was 1.17 million hectares instead of 845 thousand last year.
In many cases, reseeding of the lost areas is carried out with oilseeds, which increased their overall share in the crop structure.
