podcast
“The Zero Hour”
Milking cows in a war zone: How a farmer from Kherson tries to keep the farm running
Russian soldier in the Kherson region
© Alexei Konovalov/ / Picture Alliance
“People are suffering. They’re hungry.” A farmer near Cherson on the Black Sea describes the daily struggle to keep the farm going. Because of the war, large parts of the harvest in Ukraine are threatened because farmers cannot sow the seeds.
Actually, Andrei Pastuschenko should be in the fields these days, drilling, sowing seeds for the summer harvest. But that’s too dangerous: “Helicopters that come from Crimea fly over our company every day,” says Pastuschenko, describing the dramatic situation in the podcast “The Zero Hour”. Shortly before the interview, a Russian base that the soldiers had set up in the village near the port city of Cherson was attacked by the Ukrainians. After that the electricity went out. “We heard the explosions, our windows trembled. The Russians, it was said, attacked one of our electricity supplier’s distributors.”
“We distribute everything for free”
Like many farmers in Ukraine, Pastushenko fears for his crops – and for his cattle. “We still have a generator so I can milk our 350 cows,” says the 39-year-old. The milk – before the war the company produced ten tons a day – can no longer be picked up by the dairies. In the first few days, Pastushenko brought the milk to Kherson and gave it away to hospitals, churches and children’s homes. Since the road to the occupied port city on the Black Sea has been blocked, he has been giving them away to the surrounding villages. “Our employees started making butter, cheese, quark and cream – we gave everything free to the people who need it most. Especially families with children, pensioners and of course our employees,” reports Pastushenko. “People are suffering. They’re hungry.”
Farmers these days lack everything they need to till the fields: seeds, fertilizers and pesticides were often not delivered. Diesel was confiscated from soldiers in many yards, for military vehicles and tanks. Normally, says Pastushenko, the diesel arrived by ship at the ports of Odessa and Mykolaiv. “Now everything is blocked. It’s also impossible to buy diesel or petrol at the gas station. There are a few things on the black market, but at most 10 or 20 liters.”
The world is also threatened by a food problem
Andrei Pastuschenko’s story is a jigsaw puzzle piece in a big drama that’s emerging these days: there’s a great danger that the harvest will fail in parts of Ukraine, the “granary of Europe.” UN Secretary-General António Guterres has already warned of an increase in global hunger because the World Food Program buys more than half of its wheat from Ukraine. The prices have risen sharply. The economic adviser to the Ukrainian President, Oleg Ustenko, told the “Wirtschaftswoche”: “We have a maximum of one week for the crops. If the war doesn’t end by then, the world will have a food problem.”
Ukraine and Russia account for a third of all global wheat exports. There is fertile black earth soil, especially in the south and west of Ukraine, which covers around 70 percent of the Ukrainian area. 32 million hectares of arable land, equivalent to a third of the arable land in the European Union. However, Ukraine not only supplies wheat, barley and corn, it is also the most important exporter of sunflowers and sunflower meal.
Pastuschenko, who is a trained German teacher, wants to stay on the farm for as long as possible. So far, however, he has only been able to drill, i.e. to sow the seed, 90 of the 1500 hectares. “We’re surrounded. We can’t get in and out,” he says. “There are so many questions I can’t answer.”
Hear Andrei Pastushenko’s full story in the new episode of “Zero Hour”.
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