More than 5 million hectares of land in Ukraine cannot be cultivated because of the war
As a result of hostilities, more than 5 million hectares, or 50,000 km2, of agricultural land are currently unusable due to landmines, contamination by explosive remnants, or ongoing hostilities.
About this stated head of the Agrarian Committee of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Haydu with reference to data from regional military administrations (OVA).
Such lands require survey and may be contaminated. Due to mining or the presence of dangerous objects in agricultural lands, it is impossible to sow them.
“For example, winter crops were sown on an area of only 4.5 million hectares, although last year these crops were sown on 7.7 million hectares. This directly affects the country’s food stability. Therefore, today, with the help of international partners, our first priority is to create conditions for demining the land small and medium-sized farmers who do not have the opportunity to do it on their own,” Haydu said.
As told First Deputy Minister of Agricultural Policy Taras Vysotskyi, the interdepartmental government working group has already approved the humanitarian demining plan. We are talking about the land areas of the Mykolaiv, Kherson and Kharkiv regions, which were under temporary occupation.
According to preliminary calculations, Vysotsky clarified, 30-40% of the areas of these territories can be cleared and sown. According to other forecasts, it is about 50-60%. However, a clearer situation from the point of view of the spring sowing campaign will be clear at the end of March.
We remind you:
In Kharkiv and Kherson regions remain mined more than 1 million hectares of agricultural land.
