On February 7, the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Agrarian and Land Policy held committee meeting on the peculiarities of support for agricultural producers under martial law.

The Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Mykola Solskyi, Deputy Minister Taras Vysotskyi, First Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine Denys Kudin, representatives of specialized associations took part in the discussion.

The participants of the meeting mentioned that Russia's war in Ukraine has led to heavy losses for the entire agricultural sector. From the first days of the full-scale invasion, the war caused a crisis in the world food market, significantly affecting food security not only in Ukraine, but throughout the world. Occupation of territories, logistics disruptions, lack of resources for agricultural production,  labor shortage, stolen equipment and crops by occupiers - all these events have led to direct and indirect damage of the agricultural sector in 2022 for more than $40 billion.

In his speech, the Chair of the Ukrainian Agri Council, Andrii Dykun, thanked the Ministries and members of the specialized Committee of the Parliament for their productive work, adding that more have been done during the year of the war than in the previous 10 years. All the participants agreed that among the biggest challenges for the agricultural sector in 2023 will be demining de-occupied territories and finding funds for the restoration of farms.

"The most critical situation remains in the east and south of the country, in particular, in the de-occupied territories of Kharkiv region, Kherson region and Mykolaiv region, where many villages have been destroyed, infrastructure and agricultural fields have been completely mined. The lack of funds and the inability to prepare for the sowing campaign because of the mined territories in 2023 will lead to the fact that a significant number of fields will not be sown, and as a result a shortage of food in the world," the chair of the UAC emphasized. 

Also, Andrii Dykun focused on helping farmers who remain in the occupied territories and try to work, not to fall under the law on criminal liability for collaborationism. 

"I understand that this is not directly related to the topic of supporting agricultural producers in the conditions of martial law, but thousands of agricultural producers in the occupied and de-occupied territories are still in an uncertain state and do not understand how to work further, because they are subjects to the Law on Criminal Liability for Collaborationism. Many farmers in the occupied territories of Kherson, Zaporizhzhya and Luhansk regions do not know what to do. Their agricultural activity is considered criminal. The law defines them as collaborators if, during the occupation, their enterprises worked, and therefore "interacted" with the aggressor state, illegal authorities created in the temporarily occupied territory. I am asking for help with the processing  draft laws No. 7646 and No. 7647, which stand for the protection of agrarians who remained in the occupation, but do not cooperate with the invaders. Even now, after the deoccupation of their territories, some farmers fled to Russia because they were afraid that they would be sent to prison. The UAC considers it necessary to clearly distinguish which agrarian activity will be considered cooperation with the occupier, and which will be considered survival" Andrii Dykun emphasized.

The Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, Mykola Solskyi and Deputy Minister Taras Vysotskyi thanked the farmers for working in conditions that are often life-threatening. According to the ministry, in 2022, more than 67 million tons of grain and oil crops were sown and officially harvested on an area of ​​19 million hectares. For its part, the state provided credit to over 40,000 agro-industrial complex entities in the amount of over UAH 93 billion, including UAH 37 billion under the 5-7-9% program.

This year, the Ministry will continue to work on financing for the 2023 harvest to maintain at least the 2022 level, by reducing the cost of logistics, and will continue the state program "5-7-9% Available Credits", which has showed high results in 2022.

The chair of the Ukrainian Agri Council, Andrii Dykun, also pointed out the effectiveness of the program, and appealed to the deputies to adopt draft law No. 8051 "On state support of agriculture of Ukraine" regarding state support of agro producers, which is currently under consideration by the specialized committee.

"This draft law equalizes the conditions of participation for farmers and allows more efficient use of funds for the needs of agrarian producers. In particular, the document introduces subsidies for partial payment of the purchase of materials, equipment, works and services for production. Funding of vegetable and fruit producers is foreseen for the purpose of fridges restoration, building of laboratories and production premises. State support is also provided for the modernization of the heating system. I ask you to pay attention to it in order to support the agricultural sector of Ukraine in difficult times", concluded Andrii Dykun.