Today, one of the main challenges for the agricultural sector is to overcome the crisis consequences of the war. First of all, it is about humanitarian demining of agricultural land and its full restoration. This is one of the important areas of work of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Foode. The state budget for 2025 allocates UAH 1 billion for the demining of agricultural land. The Ministry continues to cooperate with international partners in the process of humanitarian demining. This was announced by Vitalii Koval, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine.

“Humanitarian demining of agricultural land is one of the important priorities of the Ministry. I am grateful to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD) for their assistance in this area. The demining programme has already been launched in Kharkiv region. We plan to expand it to Mykolaiv and Kherson regions,” said Vitalii Koval.

According to him, the programme is focused on supporting rural households and small farmers with agricultural land of up to 300 hectares. In total, 60% of the planned budget will be spent on mine action. The remaining 40% will be spent on supporting farmers in identifying, analysing and restoring their livelihoods.

As part of the joint mine action initiative, satellite imagery and mapping analysis of the areas has already been carried out in cooperation with the World Food Programme. In three of these regions, significant damage to agricultural land by explosive remnants and unexploded ordnance was identified.

In particular, 11,277.6 km² of agricultural land (including 1,623 km² of uncultivated land) was surveyed in Kharkiv region. 420,829 craters from explosive ordnance were found.

In Mykolaiv region, 9,804.4 km² were surveyed (2,133 km² uncultivated). 306,584 craters were found.

In Kherson region, 4,747 km² were surveyed (719 km² uncultivated). 311,666 craters were found.

“This analysis highlights significant challenges for the restoration of agriculture and ongoing risks to the livelihoods of the rural population,” Vitalii Koval said.

Background

According to the National Mine Action Authority’s action plan, 512,000 hectares of agricultural land will need to be cleared in 2024. As of mid-December 2024, the area of agricultural land surveyed since the beginning of the year is more than 315,200 hectares. The area cleared of mines is over 265,000 hectares.