The agricultural sector of Ukraine will feel the consequences of the war with Russia for 100 years

The long-term effects of soil contamination from explosive munitions, from grenades to artillery shells, can affect yields, forcing farmers to not plant affected areas or destroy crops.

This is stated in a study of the consequences of the First World War, published in the European Journal of Soil Science.

This is the conclusion of the authors of a study that collected soil samples from craters left in the Pas de Calais department as a result of the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

The Battle of the Somme River in northern France, which lasted from July to November, is one of the largest battles of the First World War, with more than 1 million people killed and wounded. 1.45 billion shells were fired, about 30% of them did not explode. French specialists neutralize an average of 467 tons of old ammunition per year.

One of the study’s authors, Dr Naomi Rintoul-Hines, from Christ Church University in Canterbury, says:

There is more than just a short-term impact [of hostilities] on agriculture due to problems in supply chains. These fields can be dangerously contaminated with munitions in the long term, perhaps for 100 years or more. This can affect food security not only in Ukraine, but also potentially on a global scale.

Before the war, Ukraine provided 40% of the wheat supply within the framework of the UN World Food Program. Currently, more than 20 million tons of wheat are in Ukrainian ports, and its export resumed only recently after reaching an international agreement on unblocking the ports. In 2021, Ukraine produced about 80 million tons of wheat, corn and barley. This year, because of the war, the harvest may be half as much.

As a result of the massive shelling in the Pas de Calais, “there were significant physical changes to the landscape, the soil in the ravines became crumbly,” explains Rintoul-Hines. And the content of lead and copper even after 100 years “exceeded the background values ​​for the region”, in some places the content of lead was higher than the levels allowed by the sanitary standards of Great Britain and the European Union. According to Rintoul-Hines, “the elevated levels of copper and lead are attributable specifically to military action, not to natural causes or other human activity.”

Metal pollution can affect the volume of production of agricultural products. For example, in 2015, the French authorities obliged local farmers to destroy the grown products, which turned out to be contaminated with elements from old ammunition.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will allocate $68 million for the purchase of 150,000 tons of Ukrainian grain for the UN World Food Program. This is the largest agreement since the beginning of the war and the agreement on the export of Ukrainian grain, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Tags: crops, explosive munitions, Production, wheat, yields, agricultural products, food security, ports, supply chains, Ukraine, fields, corn, barley, soil contamination