Supplies of fertilizer are running low, and without buyers for grain exports, farmers said they could struggle to raise funds to buy more supplies, even if they were available.
"Fuel has gone up. Fertilizer prices are insane. I don't know how we are going to work next year," said Valentyn Matviyenko, who runs a farm near Bashtanka, around 60 kilometers northeast of Mykolaiv city where some land is within range of Russian artillery.
Some traders are offering wheat prices that were one-third of pre-war highs, he said.
"Our financial resources are dwindling. We've put everything into this harvest," he said.
SEA BLOCKADE
Few in the region hold out hope that diplomatic efforts will unblock the Black Sea. They said a few convoys of ships would not even dent the volumes that need to be exported, and it is not economical to send the same grain by road.
Additional grain storage in and around Mykolaiv has been ruled out due to the risk of shelling, Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych told Reuters. Instead the focus is on building facilities closer to the Romanian border where river transport is an option.
The regional administration said it is looking at municipal and communal rather than private storage. The national government, meanwhile, is seeking to simplify export procedures and is offering farmers interest-free loans.