The Ukrainian Agri Council appealed to Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk and the Committee on Agrarian and Land Policy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine with a call to vote for the draft law No. 7577, which will be the next step in supporting the reform of agricultural land reclamation.

In the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Draft Law "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts Regarding the Improvement of the Management System of Engineering Infrastructure Objects of State-Owned Land Reclamation Systems" (reg. No. 7577 dated July 21, 2022), has been submitted and registered by People's Deputies of Ukraine Chornomorov A., Haidu O., Tarasov O. and other People's Deputies of Ukraine.

The adoption of the above-mentioned project will be a continuation of the reform in the field of irrigation and drainage, the first step of which was the adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the Law of Ukraine "On Water Users’ Organizations and Stimulation of Hydrotechnical Land Reclamation".

"Creation of reclamation systems’ operators will meet both the interests of the state and the needs of farmers, because in this way the state, on its part, creates a player that will have a medium-term development plan for 3-5 years, a desire to increase its own capacity, and also have financial capabilities that are currently lacking in the existing balancers of reclamation systems.

Also, we, as users of the service for supplying water for irrigation and removing excess water, will receive a real control mechanism for the finances that we currently pay, and we are talking about the amount of more than UAH3 billion," the appeal reads.

The UAC believes that the adoption of the draft law will have the following consequences:

• introduction of an effective model of state-owned reclamation infrastructure management through the involvement of water users;
• increase in land areas on which hydrotechnical melioration is used; reduction of the cost of irrigation and drainage of land plots;
• minimization of stopping water supply/removal risks during the growing season;
• minimization of soil degradation risks and decentralization of the water management complex control;
• ensuring transparency of the financial and economic activities of state-owned reclamation systems operators and effective market incentives for rational water usage.

The above mentioned will contribute to increase the yield of agricultural crops and the efficiency of agriculture, the share of high-margin crops and population in rural areas employment.