Non-refundable grants for greenhouses and gardens to ensure food security in Ukraine
The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine has developed non-repayable grant programs for farmers. The programs concern horticulture, berry growing, viticulture development, and greenhouses. They are designed to support businesses and ensure food security.
The Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, Mykola Solskyi, announced this.
The war led to the forced ceasing of economic activity, reduction of jobs, and loss of profits, making it impossible to cover all necessary expenses. The state is looking for opportunities to support farmers and stimulate agricultural sector development to ensure the state's food security.
The program provides grants ranging from UAH 5 to 7 million, and the program's total budget will be UAH 7 billion. Participants in the program can be private entrepreneurs, agricultural companies, and farms.
They can spend funds from the grant on constructing the complex and purchasing technical equipment for operation. The state finances 70% of the project cost for the first thousand participants, and the entrepreneur finances 30%.
The state will provide farmers from UAH 150 to 400 thousand per 1 hectare of gardens; it is about 70% of the average planting price. In addition, the state will allocate UAH 4 billion for the program to support horticulture, berry growing, and viticulture. It is a question of partial compensation for the cost of gardens.
Mykola Solskyi explained that these were grants for planting 10,000 hectares of new gardens. As with greenhouses, grant recipients must have either their own or land in use for at least 25 years. The Ministry will not provide the funds in cash but a bank account for the transparent purchase of seedlings, equipment, irrigation systems, fertilizers, etc.
"We are confident in the success and effectiveness of the approved programs. Their implementation will stimulate not only an increase in the number of greenhouse complexes and new gardens, berry gardens, and vineyards but also create jobs and strengthen the banking system. In addition, we expect the growth of our exports and saturation of the domestic market with quality products," the Minister stressed.
Reference
Because of russia's war, about a third of agricultural land in Ukraine has not been sown this year. The russian army partially occupied the agrarian Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. Almost four and a half million tons of grain from last year's harvest are blocked in Ukrainian ports; products cannot be exported through closed sea routes amid russia's military invasion. The UN warns that 18 million people are at risk of starvation because russia blockaded Ukrainian ports.
With the beginning of open russian aggression, it suddenly became clear that the expression "Ukraine is a world granary" is not just words. Ukrainian farmers feed the entire world.
"The world has not recognized the importance of Ukraine and the weight of our warnings for a long time. But russia has always known that a few steps against our state, a few steps against our region mean the consequences on all continents," said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on June 9. to the participants of the ministerial meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
