Today more than a hundred of agricultural producers have gathered at the Forum of Farmers of Rivne Region, organized by the UAC with the assistance of Stanislav Serediuk (a member of the association).

The event was attended by Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Roman Leshchenko, the UAC Chairman Andrii Dykun, Head of the Rivne Regional State Administration Vitalii Koval, People's Deputy Dmytro Solomchuk and the UAC Adviser on Land Issues Victoria Kipriianova.

Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Roman Leshchenko spoke about the significant contribution of farmers to the development of Ukraine and the areas of work of the relevant ministry.

"Almost half of the country's foreign exchange earnings comes from the agricultural sector. 20% of the country's GDP is provided by farmers. The stability of the national currency, salaries, pensions, and the stable operation of state institutions depend on how the agricultural sector works today. Our main task is to restore respect for agricultural institutions, for farmers, as the driving force of the economy. Nowadays we have restored our institution and everyone has understood that there must be a ministry of agrarian policy in an agrarian state,” he said.

The UAC Chairman Andrii Dykun spoke about important legislative agricultural initiatives of the UAC, which were recently supported by the parliament. In particular, the adopted laws: №2289, which allows to import into Ukraine the latest plant protection products, the law on agricultural insurance and supported in the first reading bill on irrigation resumption. Andrii Dykun also touched upon the amendments of the UAC to the draft bill №5600.

People's Deputy Dmytro Solomchuk told farmers about the draft bills that are planned to be submitted to the parliament. In particular, he remarked the importance of adopting in the second reading the draft bill №3205 on the Credit Guarantee Fund for agricultural producers. Also, a separate bill will regulate interaction of product suppliers and retail chains. Depending on expiration date of the products, the draft bill proposes to set clear limits for payments - from 10 to 60 days. And the main thing is to develop Ukrainian production.

"Every year, agricultural machinery (which costs hundreds of millions of euros) is imported to Ukraine. We are working to reduce these imports and increase the number of local producers," he said.

The UAC member Stanislav Serediuk (the owner of the plant for the production of equipment and spare parts for agricultural machinery MAANS) spoke about the work and problems of local business.

"To become perfect in 4 years is unreal. Our mission is to make the production of equipment efficient in order to provide jobs and produce quality products to make life easier for our farmers. But one of the main problems that we have is the lack of staff, as a lot of Ukrainian men go abroad to work,” he said.

At the same time, Stanislav Serediuk mentioned the importance of state support for mechanical engineering. In turn, the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine assured:

"If the company relies on the localization of Ukrainian truck production, we will introduce a separate program of state support for agricultural machinery, where the compensation program will be at least 40% for the production of domestic complex machinery with appropriate tax benefits," said the minister.

The Head of Rivne Regional State Administration Vitalii Koval noted the great potential of Rivne region and MAANS company. He also stated the readiness to consider proposals for the development of mechanical engineering in the region.

Peculiarities of the work of agricultural enterprises in the conditions of free circulation of agricultural lands were discussed with the UAC Adviser on Land Issues Victoria Kipriianova.