Is it unprofitable to grow buckwheat in Europe? Debunking the myths
In recent days, Facebook has been inundated with posts and stories about buckwheat, specifically photos and explanations from the EcoMan account detailing why it’s unprofitable to grow this crop in European countries.
First, a few observations about the EcoMan website. In the "About Us" section, the administration states:
“A community for the support and development of rural areas of Ukraine, the introduction of modern technologies for the development of ecological farming and animal husbandry, support for traditional food production technologies, promotion of a healthy lifestyle, ecology and safety, and rational environmental management.”
However, the page is actually a hodgepodge of various quotes, artificially generated images, short stories that have been circulating on the Internet for many years, parables by unknown authors, nature photos, and more.
Recently, we refuted their post about corn and verification. Now it’s time for buckwheat tales.
The administrators of EcoMan copied this text from elsewhere, so we began searching for the original source. Unexpectedly, we found it on… russian websites (What a surprise, eh?!).
The story about buckwheat was posted in a blog called “Glass Fairy Tale” on the russian resource Zen. The original text was twice as long as the one published by EcoMan administrators. We won’t recount the entire story, but it’s supposedly narrated by a russian photographer. He, in turn, heard these stories about Europeans not consuming buckwheat from a German migrant living in the Urals.
“In the Urals, this dish (buckwheat with meat) is called the food of the gods!” the German emphasizes. The story concludes with the sentence: “That’s why we have a unique situation in (so-called-ed.) russia: we eat what Europe simply cannot afford.”
In the EcoMan text, this sentence was slightly altered to appear as follows:
“That’s why we have a unique situation: we eat what Europe simply cannot afford.”
This is how veiled information expansion takes place.
Let’s examine the text itself
For a better understanding, we’ll first present EcoMan’s argument and then provide our commentary. While we’re not buckwheat experts, we have consulted many authoritative sources to find the answers.
EcoMan claims:
“It turns out that buckwheat is a very capricious crop. It doesn’t need extreme heat, so half of Europe is out of the picture. It doesn’t need excessive humidity — the plants will simply rot at the roots - so the other half of Europe is out too. Winds are even more harmful. Buckwheat requires particularly fertile black soil, which is a wealth in itself: it’s so demanding of nutrients that it sucks almost everything out of the soil. So after a buckwheat crop, the soil needs to rest.”
However, buckwheat is not an overly capricious crop. It grows well in cool, moist conditions, although it’s sensitive to frost. Indeed, it doesn’t thrive in excessive humidity and heat, but its short growing season helps to avoid drought and successfully grow the crop. This doesn’t mean Europe is unsuitable for buckwheat cultivation. In fact, buckwheat is grown, sold, bought, and consumed in Europe, although not in the same quantities as in Ukraine.
On the World Bank website, you can see import and export statistics confirming that European countries both buy and sell buckwheat. The world leaders in buckwheat cultivation are russia, China, and Ukraine. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, buckwheat is also grown, albeit in much smaller volumes, in Poland, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Lithuania, Estonia, France, and Austria, etc.
Buckwheat doesn’t require particularly fertile black soils; it grows well on infertile soils and is resistant to soil acidity.
“Buckwheat is one of the crops that can ‘tolerate’ different soil acidity and fertility. It can be grown both on rich chernozems (black soil-ed.) and on slightly poorer sandy loam soils. Since most soils in Ukraine have a slightly acidic environment, buckwheat can withstand it,” says Viktor Kabanets, director of the Institute of Agriculture of the North-East of the National Academy of Sciences.
Buckwheat doesn’t deplete the soil; rather, it’s a good predecessor for other crops. Its abundant fine roots keep the soil loose and friable, improving its structure. Buckwheat roots secrete acids that convert inaccessible forms of phosphorus into available nutrients, which the plant absorbs and releases for subsequent crops in crop rotation.
Additionally, after harvesting, a significant amount of potassium remains in the soil. Buckwheat is considered a good green manure, enriching the soil and suppressing weeds. Unlike other crops, the land doesn’t need to rest after buckwheat cultivation.
“But that’s not all! The real reason why buckwheat is not widespread in Europe is different: this crop doesn’t respond to fertilizers. If you feed wheat well enough with fertilizers, it will yield many times more. I have some wheat in my yard, and it’s all fertilized. But buckwheat doesn’t respond to fertilizers at all. It will continue to produce the same yield, even if you cover the whole field with fertilizers; you will only burn the ground. A European farmer harvests 10-12 centners of buckwheat per hectare and then the field needs to rest, while wheat yields 80-90 centners per hectare, sometimes 95-98. The difference is 8 times more!”
Buckwheat, like any other crop, responds to fertilizers, which impact its fertility. Farmers apply potash, phosphorus, and nitrogen fertilizers as needed, with varying rates depending on soil quality.
The average yield of buckwheat typically ranges from 10-12 centners per hectare, but the parameters are influenced by farming methods, weather conditions, and soil quality. Detailed statistics for Ukraine can be found in the “Agriculture of Ukraine” collection for 2022 (page 73).
Poland and Slovenia report similar yields, but France leads significantly, achieving 30-35 centners per hectare. Global statistics are available on the FAOSTAT website.
In comparison, the average wheat yield in Europe is about 40 centners per hectare, with countries like Germany and France reaching 60-80 centners. Graphs comparing buckwheat and wheat yields are provided here.
“In addition, buckwheat cannot be protected by pesticides and herbicides. It dies faster than weeds. Genetic engineering, which is considered a panacea for agriculture in Europe, can’t do anything about it either — buckwheat is immune to the addition of foreign genomes. It cannot be made resistant to pesticides, nor can it be protected from heat, moisture, wind, or parasites. Altered varieties simply do not germinate!”
Buckwheat can be safeguarded using pesticides, although it’s not particularly demanding. If needed, farmers may use herbicides to control unwanted vegetation, insecticides to control insects, and fungicides to eliminate fungi. While genetically modified (GM) buckwheat doesn’t currently exist, it could be developed using genetic engineering if necessary. Studies discussing the potential for creating GM buckwheat are available in this research study.
“And what a pain it is to harvest… you need a special combine, the speed must be much higher than when harvesting wheat because buckwheat doesn’t have an ear, the mechanisms are more complicated. Processing is another ordeal. It requires so many operations that wheat seems like a gift from the gods compared to buckwheat: drying, re-drying, shaking, aerating, roasting. In general, buckwheat isn’t suitable for intensive farming in Europe. That’s why it’s not grown — European agriculture simply can’t afford it. No European citizen will buy buckwheat at a price 7-8 times higher than wheat.”
In reality, no special combine harvester is needed for buckwheat. It’s harvested using the technology of separate and direct harvesting. Like other crops, there are specific requirements and approaches to harvesting buckwheat, including dehulling and drying. Numerous detailed materials in Ukrainian are available for anyone interested in learning about buckwheat harvesting. For example, agronomists discuss and demonstrate the harvesting process in these resources.
Regarding costs, Viktor Kabanets, director of the Institute of Agriculture of the North-East of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, states: “The cost of growing this crop is almost half as much as sunflower, corn, or wheat, so many small and medium-sized enterprises grow it.”
Europeans do buy buckwheat and buckwheat flour, using it to make galette biscuits in France, brew gluten-free beer, distill whiskey, and feed livestock. Due to cultural differences, the demand for buckwheat in some EU countries is much lower than in Western Asia and Eastern Europe.
Conclusion
A russian text has once again infiltrated the Ukrainian space. Our analysis reveals it to be yet another piece of misinformation. Unfortunately, this trash was presented as useful information and disseminated by EcoMan and other groups. Posts containing this text have garnered over 10,000 re-posts and more than 20,000 likes. Buckwheat is a normal crop with its own characteristics, grown and consumed in Europe. What is truly unsuitable for consumption are texts from russian blogs and websites. Let’s stay vigilant!
Prepared by Dmytro Filipchuk.