The Hydrometeorological Center forecasts a gross harvest of winter crops in 2006 of no more than 10 million tons, whereas the forecast for the current year was twice as large, Ukrainian News reports. \n \nHead of the Hydrometeorological Center Mykola Kulbida reported that under all optimal conditions it will be possible to harvest no more than 10 million tons of winter crops. "It is impossible to give an exact assessment in this situation," he said. \n \nAs of the end of September, in the traditional regions of winter crop sowing, the total area affected by soil drought increased to 70-80%, and in the east and south to 100%. There is a possibility of the loss of another 10-12% of winter crops during the wintering period. \n\nAs Mykola Kulbida noted, in the coming day rains will pass in Ukraine, and many agricultural enterprises, especially in the south of Ukraine, will risk continuing the sowing of winter crops. \n\nAgricultural enterprises as of October 7 sowed 4.724 million hectares of winter grain crops out of the planned 6.464 million hectares of areas for the 2006 harvest. \n\nMinister of Agrarian Policy Oleksandr Baranovskyi at the beginning of October stated that winter crop sowings for the 2006 harvest will amount to no more than 5 million hectares due to drought. Earlier, Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy Ivan Demchak reported a reduction in the forecast for winter crop sowing this year by 1 million hectares of winter crops, to 6.5 million hectares. \n\nIn 2004, farmers sowed 7,440 thousand hectares of winter crops, or 91.3% of the planned 8,150 thousand hectares of areas for the 2005 harvest. The Hydrometeorological Center forecast the winter crop harvest in 2005 at about 20 million tons. \n