Analysis of effective sunflower cultivation zones using the example of Ukraine

The article provides a comparative analysis of the area of sunflower cultivation from 2000 to 2023 broken down by regions of Ukraine for two conditional periods of 2000–2010 and 2011–2021, and 2022–2023 war years. Thus, during the period under research the average area of sunflower seed cultivation increased from 2.84 million ha in 2000 to 6.66 million ha in 2021 i.e. by 2.34 times. The increase of these areas occurred due to the reduction of the area allocated for the cultivation of other crop rotations. During the first conditional period (2000–2010) Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions which geographically belong to the steppe zone of Ukraine became the leaders with an area of sunflower cultivation of more than 500,000 ha (on average 469.8 and 487.8 thousand ha of sunflower). During the second conditional period (2011–2021) Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions maintained their leadership (573.5 and 564.7 thousand ha). The zone of effective sunflower cultivation has expanded due to the expansion of cultivated areas in Kirovohrad region (550.6 thousand ha) which is situated on the border of the northern part of steppe and forest steppe. The occupation of a part of Ukraine pushed back Zaporizhzhia region from leading positions in sunflower cultivation while Dnipropetrovsk and Kirovohrad regions had more than 600,000 ha in 2022–2023. The further increase of cultivation areas at the expense of other crops contradicts the laws of agriculture and the zonal recommendations of scientific institutions. Therefore, an increase in the gross harvest of sunflower seeds is possible only due to the improvement and adaptation of cultivation technology, a balanced selection of sunflower hybrids better adapted to climate changes.