KYIV, March 18 (Reuters) - Ukrainian 2024 corn sowing area is likely to decrease to 3.863 million hectares from 4.043 million sowed in 2023, the farm ministry's first official sowing forecast showed on Monday.

The ministry's data showed that farmers could also decrease the area sown for spring wheat, sunflower but could increase the acreage sown for spring barley and soybeans.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Editing by Louise Heavens)