This may seem obvious: conflict zones are not conducive to agriculture. This is particularly true in Ukraine. Satellite data confirm this, and a study published at the beginning of November in Environmental Research Letters attempts to analyze the consequences of the Russian invasion on wheat production in this country.
In 2021, Ukraine supplied 15% of the corn and 10% of the wheat produced in the world. Since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022, production has collapsed. Analysis of high-resolution satellite images makes it possible to measure the extent of this collapse. “[Elle] underlines the‘decisive impact of the war’ on agriculture in Ukraine”, noted Science, citing Jonathan Bridge, an earth scientist at Sheffield Hallam University in the United Kingdom, who was not involved in the study.
Previous work had already found that the average production of wheat, sunflower and rapeseed in cultivated areas located in regions where fighting is taking place had decreased by around 37% in 2022 compared to pre-war levels. war. But they did not allow us to know precisely whether this situation was directly linked to the war. The scientific journal
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