After the protest campaign of farmers who went to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the President's Office because of lack of promised state support for the harvest lost because of the drought, the agricultural producers’ delegation was invited to the meeting with Deputy Minister of Economic Development Taras Vysotsky.

The mechanisms of funds allocation for agricultural producers offered by UAC were discussed.

"The Deputy Minister agreed that the redistribution of funds state support is entirely within the competence of the Government. The problem is that money, which are allocated to solve this problem, will not be enough. It can be a limit of 2 thousand per 1 ha, and everyone understands that there is a minimum below which you cannot go down - it's 5 thousand per 1 ha. We need this money just to pay taxes and rent for the land. That is why we need to look for extra money. We discussed how to allocate these funds from the reserve fund, as we had offered before. The Ministry agrees that they can be allocated on a non-repayable basis. However, the problem is that there is no money in the reserve fund now, and it is necessary to make changes to the state budget to fill it. And this can be done only through the decision of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine." - the Deputy Chairman of UAC Mykhailo Sokolov explained.

Another mechanism to help farmers can be the redistribution of funds provided for road repairs. Representatives of UAC suggested redirecting some of them to help farmers. After all, despite of the unconditional importance of road construction, the threat of non-payment of wages and peasant work loss is, without a doubt, no less important.

"They also discussed the issue of state lands cultivated by farmers. Huge fines are provided for late payment of rent for these lands. Therefore, it was offered to consider the option to abolish penalties for those farms that cultivate state lands and have suffered from drought. This will make it possible not to go into bankruptcy." - Mykhailo Sokolov said.

UAD board member from Odesa and Alla Stoyanova noted that the Deputy Minister has an understanding of the problems of farmers, but it all depends on the political will of the country's leadership.

"We explained that because of the inability of farmers to pay the bills, villages may fail, because the budget sphere will be left without taxes and we need targeted funds for that. As for state lands, we asked for fines deferral. That means, the rent arrears will accumulate, we are ready to pay it later, but so that there is no penalty. In general, the conversation was very constructive, because we came up with ready-made solutions. People have received hope, but everything depends on the authorities. It is possible to redistribute funds from the state support program even tomorrow, but the Verkhovna Rada will work only next week." - Alla Stoyanova said.

We remind, this year unprecedented drought covered the South of Ukraine. Odesa, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhia, and Kherson regions were harmed. The worst situation is in Odesa region, which lost a third of the winter crop.