On the territory of Ukraine, hard and dusty smut is found annually in winter wheat crops.

Over the past decade, smut was most often detected in the fields of Vinnitsa, Volyn, Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zhytomyr, Kirovograd, Odessa, Poltava, Ternopil regions by 0.5-2% of the surveyed lands with damage to 0.1-3% of plants.

During the same period, the smut dominated on winter wheat crops in the farms of Vinnitsa, Volyn, Donetsk, Lugansk, Nikolaev, Odessa, Poltava, Sumy, Khmelnitsky, Chernivtsi regions by 0.5-4% of the investigated land with a defeat of 0.01-1% spikelets.

In 2019, smut may develop on winter wheat crops, which is due to the preserved supply of sources of infection, namely, seed that does not meet the national standards of Ukraine by its sowing conditions, as well as subject to improper seed dressing with low quality of seed pre-sowing.

For information, smut is a plant disease that has a fungal nature. Under the influence of smut, the spikelet of wheat turns into a smeared black mass (with a solid smut) or a dusty mass of spores (with a dusty smut).