The areas under leguminous crops are increasing: peas, chickpeas, lentils, and beans are displacing other crops.

It is expected that the structure of spring crops this year will not undergo drastic changes. However, due to the increase in areas under winter wheat, the sowing of spring crops will decrease. There is also a forecasted decrease in areas under spring barley due to high demand for grain legumes such as peas, chickpeas, vetch, lentils, and beans. Despite the fact that the sowing areas of these crops will not increase significantly, they rank third in terms of area immediately after wheat and barley. This year, grain legumes will be sown on about 3 million hectares. This is slightly less than in 2023 when the figure was 2.95 million hectares.

Corn now ranks fourth, although it used to be in the top three. According to an expert, the area under corn will decrease by 1% compared to the previous year. Nevertheless, it is noted that grain legumes are more profitable in the current market situation. The price of peas is much more attractive than that of corn, and investments in the production of grain legumes are lower, resulting in higher profits.

Igor Pavensky, head of the analytical center "Rusagrotrans," expects a slight decrease in the area under spring barley, while the areas under corn will remain at the same level, and grain legumes will continue to grow due to high export demand for them. Dmitry Ryliko, CEO of the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR), believes that the area under oilseeds will increase, while the area under cereal crops will decrease slightly. He estimates that the area under spring wheat will be about 13.4 million hectares, slightly less than last year (14 million hectares). He also predicts a significant increase in the area under soybeans by 300-400 thousand hectares.

Mikhail Maltsev, Executive Director of the Union of Fat-and-Oil Producers, is confident that the areas of all major oilseed crops will increase, with an addition of up to 350 thousand hectares. He specified that rapeseed and oil flax will make the largest contribution to the increase in areas. He also added that the final figures for sown areas will be known after the sowing is completed, but they usually exceed projections. In 2023, the areas under oilseeds amounted to 17.6 million hectares.

The Ministry of Agriculture's plan provides for the sowing of sugar beets on an area of 1069 thousand hectares this year, slightly more than in 2023 (1064 thousand hectares). Yevgeny Ivanov, a leading expert at IKAR, believes that the overall Russian areas under agricultural crops will remain at the level of the previous year, and in some regions such as Krasnodar Krai and the Central Chernozem Region, they may increase by 1-3%.