Andriy Dykun, Head of the SaveUA Foundation and the Ukrainian Agri Council (UAC), spoke at the roundtable "18 Months of War. Losses in the agricultural sector and prospects for the industry's recovery".
The event, organized by the UAC with the support of the USAID Agricultural and Rural Development Program (AGRO), brought together agrarians from the affected farms, government officials and international donors to communicate in person and find common solutions to restore the activities of agricultural enterprises in the de-occupied territories.
According to Andriy Dykun, agrarians whose enterprises are located in the de-occupied territories need the help of the state and international partners the most.
"Restoration of the agricultural sector as the locomotive of the state's economy is a priority for all of us. Every hryvnia earned by a farmer is important, as it means salaries for employees and assistance to the Armed Forces, support for the life of communities and assistance to the population. Agrarians in the western and central regions are not facing the same difficulties as producers in the occupied and de-occupied territories, so we need to help the latter today, without waiting for the war to end. And thus set an example for enterprises in the still occupied territories," said Andriy Dykun.
He also emphasized that large areas of agricultural land are contaminated and mined, and appealed to the authorities and international organizations for assistance in demining.
"We, as the UАС, have talked to almost all the global demining companies that are present in Ukraine, and they all say that demining according to the classical system they are used to is very expensive and very time-consuming. Everyone is looking for local solutions, looking at how farmers demine their own territories. What means they use. But for farmers, this is also a very large amount of money, so we need to allocate money for demining startups. We already have solutions that we can share," said the head of the SaveUA Foundation and the UAC.
All the issues raised during the roundtable were taken into consideration.
