Management of cultivation, market analyses, diversification, and changes in herbicide groups of sunflowers in the northeastern region of Ukraine

Sunflower cultivation remains a profitable business in Ukraine. Also, a large share of arable land is allocated for sunflowers in the northeastern part of Ukraine, particularly in the Sumy region. The paper is devoted to analysing sunflower seed sales by agro-industrial companies from 2019 to 2024. The pros and cons of three herbicide technologies for growing sunflowers are also analysed. It was found that Syngenta is the leader in sunflower seed sales, although the number of sold seeds decreased by 50% from 2019 to 2024. The 2023-2024 marketing year was marked by the maximum reduction in sunflower seed sales in almost all companies in the Sumy region. It is proven that farmers in the Sumy region choose more herbicide technology Clearfield® (CL)/Clearfield® Plus (CLP) – 31.4% (2023/2024), a slightly smaller share of classical technology – 27.1% and ExpressSun® (SUMO) technology is 19.2% of these three technologies. Due to the prevalence of sunflowers in crop rotations, there is a rapid spread of broomrape (Orobanche cumana Wallr.) in the field, which significantly reduces yield.