REGIONAL ASPECT OF OILSEED CROPS PRODUCTION IN UKRAINE

Abstract

It was established that in Ukraine oilseed crops occupy a significant (more than 30%) place in the general structure of agricultural crops in all natural and climatic zones. The change in the structure of sown areas under oilseed crops and the dynamics of their production depending on the natural and climatic zones of Ukraine in 2017–2021 was considered. The tendency to expand rapeseed crops by 25% at the expense of reducing soybean crops by 33% was recorded. Zonal specialization in the oilseed crops cultivation in Ukraine has been revealed. Sunflower and rapeseed are located in the steppe zone, soybeans are located in the forest-steppe zone. The dynamics of sown areas and gross yields of rapeseed, sunflower, and soybeans were analyzed. It was established that the main areas under sunflower in Ukraine are concentrated in the steppe (3.8 million hectares), the forest steppe (2.2 million hectares), Polissia (554 thousand hectares), so the dynamics is positive. The main areas under soybeans (757 thousand hectares) are concentrated in the forest-steppe, in the steppe – 174 thousand hectares, in Polissia – 390.3 thousand hectares, the dynamics is negative. The main areas under rapeseed in Ukraine (461.5 thousand hectares) are located in the steppe zone, in the forest steppe – 300.7 thousand hectares, in Polissia – 225.3 thousand hectares, the dynamics is positive. The leaders in the volume of oilseed crops production among the regions of Ukraine were identified, where the outputs are ensured by the high crop yield. It was concluded that the oilseed crops production in Ukraine is carried out intensively. The prospects for the further development of oilseeds crops production are related to the increase in their gross yield due to the crop yield improvement based on the introduction of modern plant varieties and hybrids.