Ukrainian Farmers Harvest Wheat Amid Russian Rockets, Crossfire

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has hit some of the most productive agricultural land in one of the world’s breadbaskets, disrupting supplies and pushing up food prices. Ukraine’s Black Sea ports have been cut off, grain storage facilities have been targeted, and now as harvest season begins, farmers are feeling the heat of relentless fighting.

Farms like Mr. Sergienko’s are the lifeblood of Ukraine’s wheat production, about two-thirds of which comes from small and medium-size producers. Even one lost year would bankrupt many of these farms. This could send a crucial section of Ukrainian industry into a downward spiral that could disrupt production for years to come.

“These are the farms that Ukraine depends on to keep its production going,” said Elena Neroba, a Ukrainian grain broker. “For most small farmers, if they lose their crop, it’s death.”

Mr. Sergienko also is counting on his farm’s main cash crop to help pay off nearly $1 million in debt. The 24-year-old inherited the family farm, in the village of Lukianivske in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region, when his father died last year of Covid-19. Three months later, the war started.

Russian rockets and other artillery have killed cows and pigs and gouged holes in the roofs and walls of nearly every building. In the fields, only about two-thirds of his wheat is accessible. The rest has been burned, or is in areas too riddled with fighting to try to reach.

“We have to think about getting what we can from every inch of this land to stay afloat,” he said.

Down the road from Mr. Sergienko, Lina Boichenko once had two farms on opposing hilltops about seven miles apart. One farm was named after herself, the other after her late husband, Vyktor.

When the war started, Ukrainian soldiers took up position on her farm to the north in the village of Shcherbaki and Russians took control of the hilltop on her other farm. The two sides exchanged fire for weeks, destroying everything on both farms until the Ukrainians were forced to retreat.

“The fields have been burned, the sheds are destroyed, our farming equipment has been burned to a crisp,” Ms. Boichenko said.

Once a village council member, Ms. Boichenko said she has since fled to the relative safety of western Ukraine and has no plans to return home while Russians are there.

“I hear they’ve been looking for me, my name’s on their list,” she said.

Problems don’t end with the harvest. Farmers often must figure out how to transport their crops through dangerous areas. When a buyer purchases grain, the farmer is sometimes responsible for transporting it.

Viktor Gryshchuk, 64, never bought any transport equipment, receiving a slightly lower price from buyers who picked up his crops themselves. Mr. Gryshchuk planted sunflowers under shelling from the Russians in May and plans to begin harvesting wheat in about two weeks.

He found a buyer for 300 tons of sunflower seeds from last year’s crops, but they are still in a dark warehouse damaged by shelling.

“It’s already been paid for,” he said, with the sound of shelling in the distance. “But they’re too afraid to come and pick it up.”

To help with the wartime strain, some farmers said they had united to work out logistics, including exporting their goods. Farmers are finding fewer companies willing to risk traveling to farms on the front line, and prices at home are lower because of the logistical challenges of getting the wheat abroad.

The war has blocked Ukraine’s ports, leaving rail export as the most viable route, though export volumes are limited.

“Farmers are looking for their own ways to export wheat, finding their own contacts who can help them access international markets,” Ms. Neroba said.

In the village of Pryshyb in Mykolaiv region, Vladimir Bedna, 64, is talking with other farmers about how best to ship his grain, since his usual buyers won’t pick it up this year. His farm, now pockmarked by artillery fire, has passed back and forth between Russian and Ukrainian troops twice during the war. Each time, he said, his fields have suffered. With the harvest ready at the end this month, he said he has borrowed combines to gather the wheat and purchased the fuel he needs to run them.

“If they start shooting, we’ll run. As long as it’s quiet, we’ll keep going,” he said, the day after Russian artillery destroyed the roof of his shed. “But nonetheless, we can’t stop. This is my only source of income.”