Today, February 2, the 5th session of the Verkhovna Rada of the 9th convocation begins its work. The Ukrainian Agri Council (UAC) Chairman Andrii Dykun expressed his opinion to the "Comments" publication on what bills domestic farmers need.

Legalization of all the agricultural sector’s parts

This week on the agenda is the bill №3131-d, the rules of which are designed to make legal all parts of agricultural sector by equalizing the tax burden per 1 hectare. Farmers have been waiting for its adoption for a long time, as the share of land under shade cultivation has reached almost 40%. This creates unequal conditions of competition between the illegal and legal agricultural producers, leads to the corruption flourishing, loss of tax revenues to the budgets of all levels.

Land issues

For a long time farmers and the leadership of the communities have been waiting for the adoption of the bill №2194, by which state-owned agricultural lands outside settlements are transferred to the ownership of communities. After the local elections in the fall of 2020, we received a new administrative-territorial structure of the country, communities have acquired new powers, and they need to form their own budgets. And how can they do this, when the lands around the villages which were included to UTC, don't belong to them?

In addition, the development and adoption of a law on land consolidation is essential. Elimination of the land plots border problem ("chess") significantly reduces the cost of land cultivation and gives a significant increase in agricultural efficiency. Farmers of the South regions, especially those who were harmed because of the drought last year, wait for the adoption of the bill "On the Water Users Association", which will allow them to invest in the irrigation development. In order to stimulate the processing process, it is necessary to simplify the procedure of connection to engineering networks. It is currently time consuming and not completely transparent. At the same time, its simplification will allow to put into operation faster processing capacities.

Reform of Ukrzaliznytsia

Railway transport reform is a problem that we have for a long time. Rolling stock depreciation, locomotives catastrophic shortage, unclear tariffs… Inefficient current legislation does not solve the problems, but stop them. Further inaction can lead to catastrophic consequences. At the same time, the Verkhovna Rada has a number of bills aimed to resolve these problematic issues. In particular, №1196 and №1196-1 "On Railway Transport of Ukraine" and №3927 "On the National Commission for State Regulation of Transport". These legislative initiatives include demonopolization, admission of private traction on highways, equal access of private carriers to railway infrastructure, ensuring transparent conditions for setting tariffs for infrastructure services, the establishment of an independent regulator in the field of railway transport and more.

Access for farmers to modern plant protection agents

Currently, farmers are restricted in access to more modern, safe and environmental products, as Ukraine has a rule of law that prohibits the import of the latest specimens’ samples for their research in Ukraine. The draft law №2289 "On Amendments to the Article 4 of the Law of Ukraine "On Pesticides and Agrochemicals" repeals this norm. The access of agricultural producers to new specimens will increase the agriculture’s efficiency, in particular, increase the profitability of grain cultivation and their area, as well as expand markets for domestic crop products.

Labelling of products that imitate milk and dairy products

The counters of our stores are full of products labelled as dairy products, but the quality of which is quite questionable. Today, it is difficult to prosecute unscrupulous dairy producers who falsify dairy products. At the same time, the bill №3516 "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Concerning Food Products Imitating Milk and Dairy Products" obliges to label dairy products that do not consist of 100% milk and to place them separately from dairy products on store shelves. In particular, on the wrappers of all products that do not consist of milk, the manufacturer must place the inscription: "Imitation product. Contains substitutes for milk components". The store, in turn, should place separately on the shelf dairy products and those that imitates milk and dairy products.

I hope that the deputies will hear agricultural producers and support the listed legislative initiatives in the parliament hall and at committee meetings.