Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Ukrainian winter grains finished vegetation and areas where plants have sprouted won’t increase after the country’s worst autumn drought in at least 50 years, according to the national weather center.

The drought lasted as long as 75 to 80 days in most of Ukraine and a third of the winter grains that were planted failed to emerge, Tetiana Adamenko, head of the center’s agro- meteorology department, told reporters in Kiev today.

“Chances are low the situation will change in the rest of November and in December,” Adamenko said. She cautioned against expecting sizable winter-wheat and rapeseed harvests.

Winter-wheat sowing in the nation fell 2.2 percent to 6.32 million hectares (15.6 million acres) this year, according to Agriculture Ministry figures. Winter rapeseed was planted on 913,000 hectares and sprouted on 752,000 hectares.

--Editors: Dan Weeks, Nicholas Larkin.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kateryna Choursina in Kiev at kchoursina@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net