Ukrainian Agriculture; Globalization & Farming Under Siege

Ukraine’s climate is ideally suited to grow a wide range of industrial commodity crops. Ukraine has long been Eurasia’s breadbasket and over the last 10-15 years, the country's farms have shifted from exporting mainly to its neighbors in post-Soviet countries to feeding the world. Ukrainian grains and oilseeds supply the EU, a growing middle class in China and populous poor countries in Africa and Asia. I am applying to Kellogg Institute funding to conduct research to document and explain how Ukrainian agriculture globalized since the early 2000s and the role of corn in this process. With the onset of Russia’s war in Ukraine, a series of new and urgent questions need to be answered concerning the impact of war on Ukrainian farming. The second aim of this research project is to document how Ukrainian farms are affected by the war. The findings and output of this project has both academic and policy relevance.