By KYIV. Sept 15 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine recently launched a program for farmers who have up to 300 hectares of land and are faced with the need to clear it, Spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Ukraine Saviano Abreu has said.
“We have started a new program recently with the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to support demining of mainly small scale farmlands. It is for farmers that have a maximum 300 hectares of land that are facing this challenge with mine contamination. We are supporting them to clear their lands so they can resume the activities. We have other supports on mine action, but this specific one is quite interesting, in my opinion,” Abreu said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, within this project, the UN helps Ukrainian farmers not only resume their activities, but also undertakes to buy part of their products. “The World Food Programme is going to buy this food for their humanitarian assistance. In summary, I demine your land, I give you inputs to resume your activities and then buy at least part of what you produce to ensure food assistance either here or outside of the country. So it guarantees that farmers are going to have an income and people are going to have affordable food,” Abreu said.
As reported by OCHA, the program has already started in Kharkiv region, and it is planned to expand activities to Kherson and Mykolaiv regions in the coming months.
“The program started last month. It’s really new. And there we are working closely with the regional authorities. We do it together, even the applications from the farmers to receive the grants go through the administration, the local government,” the UN said.
