A strategic decision was made to look for an alternative crop that would be more drought-resistant, would not deplete the soil, would have stable economic efficiency, and would improve crop rotation.
Five years of experience and proven technology. How flax replaced sunflower
08 July 2026, 06:17 222
At the GLEK farm in the Kherson region, flax has completely replaced sunflower in the crop rotation.
This is stated by the head of the farm, Andriy Povod.
According to him, the farm is located in the south of Ukraine and the key limiting factor in yield is moisture. Even with strict adherence to technology and high-quality performance of all agricultural operations, with a deficit of precipitation, the yield can be minimal. That is why, even before the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, No-Till technology was introduced here as a tool for preserving moisture and improving soil structure.
In 2018, a systemic decrease in sunflower yields began to be recorded in the FG. In addition, crops sown after it developed worse and formed lower yields compared to other predecessors.
Andriy Povod, head of the GLEK farm
In 2019, they decided to introduce oil flax into the crop rotation. Not limited to small experimental plots, they immediately allocated 10% of all cultivated areas for it.
Andriy Povod points out that oil flax has a number of agronomic and economic advantages:
- high drought resistance and lower moisture requirements compared to sunflower;
- a shorter growing season, which reduces the risk of exposure to summer temperature peaks;
- a lower water consumption coefficient;
- the possibility of effective weed control thanks to a wide range of permitted herbicides;
- less soil depletion;
- stable demand in the domestic and export markets;
- good margins at relatively lower production costs.
Before the full-scale invasion, the introduction of oil flax cultivation was carried out exclusively at the expense of the farm's own funds.
Andriy Povod, head of the GLEK farm
After the complete destruction of the enterprise during the occupation of the right-bank Kherson region in 2022, we are restoring production in extremely difficult conditions.
According to him, today flax cultivation has become possible thanks to the support of the Charity Fund Harvest of Victory, which provides temporary use of agricultural machinery for sowing and harvesting. The harvest is stored in polymer sleeves provided by USAID AGRO.
Andriy Povod shares five-year statistics (2019, 2020, 2021, 2024, 2025), which allows us to draw reasonable conclusions:
- The yield of oil flax is consistently at or higher than that of sunflower.
- The cultivation technology is no more complicated than sunflower.
- Flax has shown better adaptation to dry years.
- During the cultivation of newly demined fields, a wide range of herbicides allowed for flax makes it possible to effectively clear the fields of weeds.
- Flax is a strong predecessor: winter wheat after it produces an average yield of 1 t/ha more than after sunflower.
Andriy Povod, head of the GLEK farm
In our crop rotation, flax has completely replaced sunflower. After the dry year of 2025, many farms began to look for an alternative to sunflower. We were ready for this - we have five years of experience and proven technology. Now we are ready to share our experience, seeds, and technological recommendations with colleagues.
The next strategic step is to launch the processing of oil flax with the production of value-added products. The farm was close to implementing this project, but the complete destruction of the farm during the occupation postponed these plans.
Despite this, Andriy Povod is confident in the restoration, development and believes in the strong future of the Ukrainian agricultural sector.
For reference: The GLEK farm is a finalist of the All-Ukrainian competition POWER OF AGROCHANGES in the Profitable Niche nomination.
The competition is organized by the online publication AgroPortal.ua with the support of the AGRO Program, funded by the US Government and implemented by Chemonics International.
Alla Stryzheus, AgroPortal.ua
