Ukraine: The Breadbasket of Europe

by: Ian Sheldon, Professor and Andersons Chair of Agricultural Marketing, Trade, and Policy, Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics, Ohio State University

This short essay, recently published in the Ohio State online magazine Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective, places the impact of the war in Ukraine on global markets into a historical context.  Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukrainian agriculture has returned to its pre-revolutionary position as a major agricultural exporter, largely due to land reform and restructuring of its collective farms.  Land reform has resulted in the development of large-scale, privately-operated farms with owners investing in new technology and introducing best management practices. By 2018, cereal yields had increased by almost 40%, Ukraine re-establishing itself as the “breadbasket of Europe. The full article can be accessed at: https://origins.osu.edu/read/ukraine-food-war-agriculture

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