The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has partnered with the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Foundation Suisse de Déminage (FSD) in a collaborative effort to support smallholder farmers and rural communities who are most affected by the ongoing Ukraine conflict.
Having started in Kharkivska oblast, with plans for expansion to Mykolaivska and Khersonska oblasts, the programme is focused on farmers with land plots smaller than 300 hectares and families growing food for their consumption.
The purpose of the programme is to safely return the land to its productive use, simultaneously clearing it of mines and other explosive remnants of the war, to help restore the agricultural livelihoods of these communities and to support Ukraine's economic recovery while also phasing out the country's need for humanitarian aid for thousands of rural families.
The ongoing conflict has caused significant damage to agriculture and food production in Ukraine, disrupting its supply chains and exports while also increasing production costs and creating prevalent, far-reaching mine contamination.
Published in February 2023, the Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment showed that Ukraine's production of grain and oilseeds declined by 37 percent in 2022, with close to 90 percent of small crop producers surveyed by the FAO reporting a declining revenue due to the war.
One in four Ukranian small crop producers reported stopping or significantly reducing agricultural activity.
The UN humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine, Denise Brown, said that making the land safe and free of explosive remnants of the war was the first step in rebuilding resilient and prosperous rural communities across the country. Being at the frontlines of the war, these rural communities have, consequently, been prevented from receiving long-term humanitarian aid.
The head of FAO Ukraine country office, Pierre Vauthier, said that rural families and smallholder farmers in frontline regions refrained from planting this season because their fields are unsafe and could potentially risk their lives to plant on mined land and contaminated soils.
Vauthier said that the FAO expected soil rehabilitation, remediation, and conservation techniques to support people's return to farming and therefore help restore rural livelihoods while helping sustain Ukraine's agricultural production.
WFP representative and country director in Ukraine, Matthew Hollingworth, said that without critical action, Ukrainian agriculture production would continue its decline, which would directly impact food security and diet diversity across the country, with potential effects to be felt across the country's regional markets as well as for global markets.
In collaboration with communities, local authorities, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, the FAO, WFP, and FSD will first find and map land plots that need demining with satellite imagery.
The second step will have demining teams survey and clear lands of mines and any other explosive remnants of the war, prioritising land that could be released with little clearance work needed.
In the final and third steps, the FAO and FSD will test soils to analyse whether exploded weapons have left any pollutants behind.
WFP and FAO will also survey small farmers and rural families on what input and resources are needed to restart agricultural production. They will provide direct in-kind or cash support where possible.
