agricultural land
Demining agricultural land is critically necessary, — Hanna Lavreniuk
According to the State Emergency Service, a third of the territory of Ukraine remains contaminated with explosive objects, including agricultural land. According to preliminary forecasts, in 2023, the area sown under agricultural crops will decrease by 7 million hectares (before the war, 29 million hectares were sown) — that is, MILLIONS OF HECTARES WILL NOT BE SOWN due to mining.
The general director of the Association of Milk Producers (AMР), Hanna Lavrenіuk, says that today farmers have submitted more than 500 applications to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy about the need to inspect and demine nearly 2.5 million hectares.
The Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Kharkiv regions are the most contaminated by the remnants of shells and mines, where more than 800,000 hectares of agricultural land need demining as a priority.
Currently, state institutions are engaged in the demining of territories — demining brigades of the State Special Transport Service, the State Emergency Service, the National Guard, and the National Police. But their primary task is demining civilian and infrastructural facilities (housing, hospitals, kindergartens, schools, state institutions, roads, power lines, etc.) to protect citizens.
«Meanwhile, livestock farmers from the affected regions are suffering, because without urgent humanitarian demining of at least part of the agricultural land, they will not have time to sow fodder crops this year for harvesting silage and hay, which make up more than half of a cow's daily ration,» Hanna Lavreniuk emphasizes.
A minimum of 1 hectare is needed for one cow to harvest a sufficient amount of roughage per year. That is, a farm with 500 cows needs at least 500 hectares in the structure of crops to be allocated for growing fodder for livestock.
For the equipment of one group of sappers of 10 people, an average of 100−150 thousand dollars is needed.
«Currently, the latest armored demining equipment is already in operation in Ukraine, which is remotely controlled by mine-mining operators, which significantly reduces the risks to their health and life. For example, the United24 foundation purchased an Armtrac-400, the Howard Buffett foundation handed over two similar machines to the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, and they are announcing the delivery of 6 more. However, the needs are ten times greater, because one such machine can demine an average of 2,000 square meters per day, which is 0.2 hectares.
That is, it will take 5,000 days or almost 14 years to demine 1,000 hectares with one such machine," Hanna emphasizes.
AMР pays special attention to the acute situation in the Kharkiv region and the need for demining agricultural lands of dairy farms.
That is why the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, the Ministry of Economy, and the AMР appeal to humanitarian demining funds and organizations for help. A number of them have already announced their intention to join:
FAO plans to allocate about 50 million euros for humanitarian demining programs,
The EU announced the preparation of programs for 25 million euros, the government of Canada — for 11 million dollars.
At the same time, Hanna Lavreniuk notes that the very approximate cost of demining agricultural lands, which need this priority, is 1.5 billion dollars.
Why demining is critically necessary, what risks are faced by farms from the frontline and de-occupied territories, how the current state of demining may affect the prices of dairy products — in the comments of Hanna Lavreniuk to Suspilnomu: