russia destroyed more than 5 mln hectares of Ukraine's farmland
Photo: illustrative picture/ The General Staff of Ukraine's armed forces
More than 5 million hectares, or 50,000 km2, of agricultural land, is currently unusable due to russian landmines, contamination by explosive remnants, or ongoing hostilities.
These lands require a survey and may be contaminated, says Oleksandr Haidu, head of the Agrarian and Land Policy Committee.
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 food stability of the country. Therefore, today our primary task, with the help of international partners, is to create conditions for demining the land of small and medium-sized farmers who do not have the opportunity to do it on their own," Haidu said.
According to the 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 could 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.
