KIEV, Sept. 12 – Ukraine is to sow the same area of fields with grain crops this marketing year (July 2008 – June 2009) as last year – around 15.5 million hectares, according to Deputy Agriculture Minister Yaroslav Hadzalo.

"We forecast that [the area of sowed fields] will not be a hectare less than last year," he said.

Hadzalo said that due to a fall in the harvest of fodder crops caused by a considerable fall in livestock, agricultural land in Ukraine is oversaturated with grain crops.