Fields of sunflowers burnt brown under blue skies are ready for harvest, but artillery and rockets are stopping farmers in east Ukraine’s frontline villages from gathering their crops.
Ukraine is the world’s biggest exporter of sunflower oil, with more than half the global market, but fighting between separatist and government forces has left fields strewn with metal shell casings and torn-up clumps of mud.
On the dirt road between Vilkhivka and Zuevka, about 50km east of the flashpoint city of Donetsk, an unexploded rocket sticks javelin-like in the earth as unharvested sunflower fields sway in the breeze.
Photo: AFP
Rebels in the area accuse the Ukrainian army of indiscriminate fire, with villagers staying close to home, ready to hide from the shelling in their basements.
“We’re not stopping the local people from harvesting their crops, but they’re too scared to come out,” local rebel commander Vasiliy Petrovich said as he drove past the sunflower fields, without a farmer in sight.
The sunflower is Ukraine’s chief oilseed crop, generating export income of US$3.28 billion last year, government data show.
Analysts say overall yields in Ukraine will remain high despite the conflict, with the sunflower seed crop exceeding 10.2 million tonnes this year, compared with 11 million in the previous harvest.
The Donetsk and Lugansk regions of eastern Ukraine account for just 15 percent of the country’s total sunflower seed production, but those regions are facing a 20 to 30 percent crop loss, according to UkrAgroConsult analysts, although the majority of harvesting is going ahead.
However, it will be the smaller farmers who are too scared to harvest or have nowhere to sell their crops who suffer most.
“I think that small farms will go bankrupt this year and next year they will not plant crops,” said Yulia Garkavenko, head of oilseeds and vegoils at the consulting agency.
Beside the main road leading east toward the city of Shakhtarsk, a combine harvester scythes through a dry brown sunflower field, sending a cloud of dust towards the rebel checkpoint just a few hundred meters north.
The crop is as good as previous years, 51-year-old farmer Alexander Abashin said after stepping down from his tractor cab.
“But of course the situation is different from before. For a start we have no place to sell the harvest, so right now we’re storing it in the warehouse,” he said.
“It’s all because of the fighting. It’s brother against brother; it’s unreal. We need a ceasefire, we need to be able to work to earn money to feed our families,” Abashin added.
Despite the ceasefire agreed on Sept. 5, fighting has continued and at least one sunflower seed processing plant has been forced to close, underlining the precarious situation for foreign firms working in the east.
US-based agribusiness Cargill Inc halted operations at its Donetsk plant in early July, citing the heightened tensions in the area, with the factory then occupied by armed men.
Rebel fighters manning a checkpoint on the main road in front of the factory stopped reporters from driving closer, but black smoke could be seen spewing from the factory across the surrounding sunflower fields, reportedly the result of a fire burning there for more than a week.
The chest-high sunflowers — symbols of fertility and unity in Ukrainian folklore — have made an incongruous backdrop to five months of bloodshed in which more than 3,200 people have been killed.
Camouflaged gun-toting rebel fighters have been pictured manning positions among the flowers and after the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in July, rescuers combed the bright yellow fields around the village of Grabove for body parts.
Yet the flowers have also brought rare moments of joy: In Ilovaisk, a pro-Russian separatist working to clear unexploded mortars and rockets from the railway line stops and laughs out loud when he sees a wild sunflower growing beside the rail, giving it a thumbs up and exclaiming in English: “Super good, very good.”
Back on the road between the frontline villages, the bearded rebel commander shouts at the driver to stop as explosions a few hundred meters in front of the car send plumes of smoke mushrooming into the air.
“Grad,” he calls out, referring to the multi-rocket launching system frequently used in the conflict.
With the smoke still drifting, the fields become quiet, except for the rustle of brittle brown sunflowers hanging their heads.
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