Olena Kryvova<\/a>, Coordinator of the Ukraine Country Programme at Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining, introduced the aspect of inaccessibility of agricultural land for production due to the risk of explosive ordnance contamination.<\/p>\n Main points:<\/b><\/p>\n \u2022 There is a risk of fertile land containing anti-personnel mines, anti-vehicle mines, and cluster munitions. The area of land to be demined has not been determined yet, though the survey process is still under way. It is currently certain that up to half the lands mined are proximate to the frontlines.<\/p>\n \u2022 The main approach to relieve the risk of contamination is to perform a comprehensive non-technical survey. The land is then immediately released for agricultural use or marked for technical surveys and extraction. The survey projects are conducted predominantly on the scale of amalgamated territorial communities.<\/p>\n \u2022 The commercial land monitoring service Feodal has launched a platform<\/a> for the farmers to apply to for a demining survey.<\/p>\n \u2022 There are new technologies being introduced: artificial intelligence, use of satellite imagery, domestically produced mine clearing machines, use of drones for data procurement, innovative financing models.<\/p>\n \u2022 The Ukrainian government has produced a priority list for lands slated for demining, which is based on the criteria of economic feasibility and explosive ordnance density. Economic feasibility categories are the following: (I) vegetables and melons, (II) other arable land, (III) other non-agricultural land.<\/p>\n \u2022 The Ukrainian demining efforts are at the spearhead of innovation. The nuances in the industry speed up the search for the unexploded ordnance, but the demining process is still to be done in a manual and labor-intensive manner.<\/p>\n Hryhorii Stolnikovych<\/a>, Researcher at KSE Agrocenter, presented the findings of its research into how influential fuel and fertilizers are to the immediate and further crops production and what actions have the farmers sought to alleviate themselves from the inputs price increase.<\/p>\n Main points:<\/b><\/p>\n \u2022 The fuel prices amount to 35-40% of the total cost of goods produced. Their prices (of natural gas and oil) increased 60%-100% since the start of full-scale invasion. Hryhorii decided to estimate the substitutability of fuel and its price elasticity of production.<\/p>\n \u2022 There was an attempt to include the organic producers into the dataset with surveys having minor success, though such producers grow different crops than the ones primarily studied in this project.<\/p>\n \u2022 The share of fuel and fertilizers in the costs of wheat, corn and peas have been constantly increasing. The share of fertilizers in the same costs have plateaued. But the share of land in barley costs increased significantly due to the expansion of sowing this crop. The cost of flour does not depend on energy prices to a great extent.<\/p>\n \u2022 It turns out that the food producers have greater difficulties in substituting fuel and fertilizers. There is a possibility to domestically produce the fertilizers and this option allows for fuel savings.<\/p>\n Presentation<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Prof. Dr. Rico Ihle<\/a>, Associate professor at Wageningen University, introduced the way the Ukrainian agricultural sector survives through the difficulties. According to him, the Ukrainian food sector is set to become the innovator in resilience and can rather easily surpass any further hurdles once the country is fended off the RF.<\/p>\n Main points:<\/b><\/p>\n \u2022 The Ukrainian agricultural sector persevered through the challenges of post-soviet reconstruction, climate change, and war-related supply chain disruptions. The current war-related challenge puts it into a rather unique fate in the world\u2019s history.<\/p>\n \u2022 Without any shelter from the EU\u2019s Common Agricultural Policy, the Ukrainian food industry has become the global cornerstone of food supply. In addition, Ukrainian grain exports sustained a 2.5-fold increase in production costs. These statements depict the considerable resilience and adaptability capabilities of the local farmers and processors.<\/p>\n \u2022 The challenges to Ukrainian farmers are similar to others in that unforeseen events happen to them. The differences with the other farmers appear in the degree, duration and comprehensiveness of those unforeseen events.<\/p>\n \u2022 The Ukrainian agricultural business can convert the war challenge into an opportunity through the resilience innate to them. The food producers have an opportunity to completely decouple the production chains from RF.<\/p>\n \u2022 Ukraine can become a global resilience expertise leader through channeling its grief into inventiveness.<\/p>\n Presentation<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Vasyl Hovhera<\/a>, Economist at European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, and Olena Penenko<\/a>, Principal Banker at EBRD, have displayed the role this international institution have in assisting the food production industry throughout the past 22 months of the full-scale war and how they still can help any farmer.<\/p>\n Main points:<\/b><\/p>\n \u2022 The EBRD co-finances projects and assists in institutional change. It supports innovations through technical assistance.<\/p>\n \u2022 The EBRD appeared at the forefront of supplying the Ukrainian businesses\u2019 finances during the RF\u2019s invasion. The war had become a liquidity challenge for the Bank\u2019s partners: the energy and railway sector were prominent recipients over this period, while the Bank had to assist the agricultural sector as well since it was left behind by the rest of the banking sector.<\/p>\n \u2022 The assistance to the food industry was directed towards improvements in agricultural logistics, the renewal of assets, expansion of production and storage capacities, and to the reintegration of the demobilized personnel into the workforce.<\/p>\n \u2022 The EBRD can provide the businesses with the loans in the following manner: direct assistance can be done with the minimal amount of UAH 10 mln., assistance with distributed risks (when the EBRD partners with third party banks) \u2013 with at least UAH 2 mln., and a minimal investment of UAH 50 thsd. can be provided as part of the Bank\u2019s portfolio of peer projects.<\/p>\n \u2022 EBRD, in coordination with USAID, took part in the Grain Alliance \u2013 a logistical assistance project directed to agricultural exports towards Slovakia.<\/p>\n \u2022 There are two cases of EBRD assisting the food businesses. The first case related to Astarta company entailed liquidity assistance, capacity modernization, and the implementation of a climate corporate governance programme. The latter became the highlight of the case since the interest rate on the loan is conditional on the greenhouse gas emissions of the company. The second case related to IMK company also entailed logistics financing and the introduction of new digital technologies for production.<\/p>\n \u2022 EBRD also launched a training platform AgriAcademy<\/a> for the farmers to obtain new skills.<\/p>\n \u2022 EBRD continues the development of the irrigation infrastructure and the institutional adaptation for the needs thereof.<\/p>\n \u2022 The Bank also consults small and medium enterprises on more innovative and sustainable production technologies.<\/p>\n The seminar evolved from presentation of the developments and findings into a panel discussion, in which the following people took part:<\/p>\n \u2022 Rodion\u00a0 Rybchynskyi<\/a>, Head of Union of Millers of Ukraine.<\/p>\n \u2022 Stefan Dreesmann<\/a>, Leader of the German-Ukrainian Cooperation in Organic Agriculture (COA) project.<\/p>\n
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