Today, UAC provided the first tranche of aid - wheat and barley seeds for sowing - to its participants from Odesa region who lost their crops because the drought. UAC residents from all regions of Ukraine responded to the call for help from colleagues. To date, more than 1.1 million UAH has been collected; 138 tons of wheat and barley have been contracted. Fundraising continues.

“In recent weeks, UAC has been working to collect information about the needs of farmers, organize fundraising, purchase seed and deliver it to farmers. The situation in farms is extremely difficult, many of them have nothing to sow. And this is a collapse for the farms. In such a situation, UAC could not leave its participants alone with trouble. Over the years, our farmers have learned to unite not only in defending their interests before the authorities, but also to unite to help each other. Farmers in the south of Odesa region hope for the promised help from the state, but there is no time to wait: it is necessary to sow now. That is why we did not stand aside and decided to help as much as we could on our own," Andrii Dykun, the Chairman of UAC said.

The participants of UAC transferred the funds to the account of the First Ukrainian Agri cooperative, which centrally purchased the seeds and delivered them to the farms. Twelve farms asked UAC for help. Today four of them received sowing material, other seeds will be delivered to other farms in the near future.

"We are in a very difficult situation this year. There was no harvest. Therefore, I am extremely grateful to UAC for the prompt assistance and for responding. This is how we gather from the world on a string for sowing,” Yurii Mulienkov, the head of LLC “Iva” said.

In addition to funds, UAC participants share their own harvest with colleagues, providing material for sowing. Thus, another 136 tons of wheat were gathered.

"I was sincerely impressed that there are people who are ready to come and help you gratuitously. A few farms shared sowing material with us. Of course, this is not the whole need, we will buy more, but the fact that we were not left to fend for ourselves is very valuable and I am grateful to everyone for their help,” Ivan Baranov, the Head of Agrocompany «Agrotok» said.

Need of farms who lost their crops is 939 tons of wheat and barley. UAC has currently provided 274 tons, which is about 35%. Therefore, the issue of state assistance to agricultural producers remains extremely relevant.

We will remind, this year unprecedented drought covered the South of Ukraine. Odesa, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhia, and Kherson regions were affected. The worst situation is in the southern regions of Odesa region, which have lost winter and spring crops. In May the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture promised the affected farms to compensate partially for the lost harvest. However, no funds were allocated. That is why farmers went to protest to the Cabinet of Ministers. UAC has repeatedly offered the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture mechanisms to help farmers and called on the Government to use them.