Today, the entire agrarian sector has been holding its breath in waiting - in the near future, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine will start considering the land market bill which is fateful for the agrarian community as well as the whole Ukraine. The amendments, which will be taken into account by the Parliament and the final version of the bill, will determine who will be the master on the Ukrainian land - Ukrainian agrarians or oligarchs and foreign financial speculators.

The Ukrainian Agri Council has repeatedly emphasized that the small and medium-sized agrarian business, which cultivates 75% of agricultural land in Ukraine today, is the most favorable and effective for the development of the economy and social sphere of the country. It is the basis for the existence of a village, because it creates twice as many job opportunities, in comparison to agro-holdings, and pays 1.5 times more taxes per 1 hectare of cultivated land, and carries a social burden.

That is why the amendments, submitted to the land market bill № 2178-10 by the experts of UAC, are aimed at the development of small and medium-sized agricultural producers and preventing the oligarchization of the agricultural sector of Ukraine. UAC highlights that the key principles of the reform should be:

• Prohibition of the purchase of agricultural land by foreigners;
• Imposition of strict restrictions on the amount of land per one person;
• Granting of permission of land purchase only for citizens of Ukraine, the state and communities.

Only a comprehensive implementation of these principles will allow all participants in the agricultural sector to adapt their work to new conditions without any crisis, the wave of bankruptcies of small agricultural producers, and the decline in production growth and decline of the Ukrainian village.

However, as the process of consideration of bill № 2178-10 in the first reading showed, the voice of agrarians may not be always heard. The bill has already received over 2,000 amendments. Among them, most likely, there are those that protect the interests of the oligarchs, strengthen the position of agro-holdings, and create “loopholes” that will allow foreign transnational companies to buy Ukrainian agricultural land. Deputies should consider them all. It means that the law can be adopted in any version in the result.

That is why UAC calls on the agrarians to mobilize all their forces and be ready at a crucial moment – during the days when deputies will be considering amendments to the bill – to come under the walls of the Verkhovna Rada and to stand up for land reform models that will be rational, prudent, and, most importantly, profitable for Ukraine, not for oligarchs and international financial speculators.

It may take at least a week to consider 2,000 amendments. And during all these days we must be in the capital, actively bringing our position to the authorities. We must make it clear to everyone that farmers are ready for a long and serious struggle and do not intend to back down.