Agriculture of the Korosten district is a branch of material production, specializing in the production of milk, grain and fodder crops. This happened under the influence of natural conditions and socio-economic factors.
The total land area is 173.5 thousand hectares. Of them, agricultural land occupies 84,471 hectares, including 34,722 hectares of arable land, about 1,300 hectares of perennial crops, 9,170 hectares of hayfields, 11,772 hectares of pastures, 55,557 hectares of forestry land, 67 open lands, 2,182 hectares under water. The share of arable land in the land fund is slightly more than 20% (57% in Ukraine). One inhabitant of Korosten Oblast has a total of approximately 0.81 ha of agricultural land (1 ha in Zhytomyr Oblast). Agricultural land is used by collective agricultural organizations and private users.
Commercial production of agricultural products in the Korosten district is carried out by limited liability agricultural companies, private rental agricultural enterprises, as well as joint, subsidiary, state and farm enterprises. In connection with a sharp reduction in the number of employees, the workload of one employee has increased significantly. Due to the war, the efficiency of agricultural production is sharply reduced. Thus, the gross agricultural output of collective farms is only about 12 million hryvnias, which is significantly less than in 1991 – about 36 million hryvnias. (In 1983 prices).
Vegetation in the Korostenskyi district currently accounts for only 30% of the value of gross production. Sown areas have somewhat stabilized in recent years, about 12,000 hectares are cultivated annually under grain crops, minor areas are occupied by potatoes, and the areas under rapeseed and corn are expanding, which is caused by the huge demand for them as a possible raw material for the production of biodiesel.
Among grain crops, farms in the Korosten district mainly cultivate rye, winter wheat, barley, and oats. Sown areas of grain crops decreased by more than half compared to 1991. Accordingly, the gross harvest of grain also fell. For various reasons, flax growing has almost completely stopped in the area, the once traditional for Polissia buckwheat and millet occupy meager areas.
The main branch of animal husbandry in farms of the Korosten district is dairy cattle breeding, which accounts for half of the value of gross production produced by the farm. In animal husbandry, such a negative trend continues as the decline of the livestock population in all categories of the economy. Approximately half of the total available livestock is in agricultural enterprises, the other half is in the auxiliary farms of peasants. The productivity of cows in the district remains at a low level. The production of meat, which is about 700 kg per 100 hectares of agricultural land, has decreased significantly. The private sector has become an equal partner of the collective farms of the Korosten district in the production of agricultural products. Thus, there are about 3,000 cows in village yards, almost all the birds in the area, and more than 90% are pigs.
The private sector in the district produces 55% of milk, 40% of grain, more than 90% of pork, poultry, eggs, potatoes, vegetables, and fruits.
A significant problem of agriculture in the Korosten district is technical equipment. Most of the tractors and combine harvesters available in the area have exhausted their resource. Over the past 20 years, only a few farms (“Obriy”, “Niva”) purchased new equipment. The fact that in recent years private farms and private individuals have been buying a small amount of used equipment can help smooth the situation.
On the territory of the Korosten district, in the village of Grozyne, there is the Polissia Institute of Agriculture of the Ukrainian Academy of Agrarian Sciences, established in 1976 on the basis of the Zhytomyr research station and the Polissia branch of the Ukrainian Research Institute of Agricultural Mechanization and Electrification. The Institute participates in the implementation of 18 scientific and technical programs of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, the main scientific institution of the Center for Scientific Support of Agricultural Production of Zhytomyr Region. The main areas of scientific and technical activity of the Institute are: development of theoretical foundations for increasing land fertility, agrotechnical foundations for building intensive and dynamic crop rotations, breeding and introduction of new varieties of agricultural crops (cereals, flax, potatoes, fodder), improvement of the fodder production system, development of technological means for mechanization crop production
The institute has developed and put into production a soil protection system of agriculture, energy-saving technology of tillage, ecologically safe technologies of using fertilizers and meliorants, bred new varieties and hybrids of agricultural crops (winter rye – 3, flax – 5, potatoes – 4, lupine – 2). Every year, 300-500 tons of elite seeds of rye, wheat, barley, oats, perennial grasses, lupins, diapers and about 150 tons of potatoes. The average annual yield of grain crops on the institute’s fields is 20-30 t/ha.