Giving Compass' Take:
- Ukrainian farmers are trying to keep their crops and livestock alive but are coping with shortages in supplies and funding due to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
- How does this war shed light on the interconnectedness of global food systems? How can donors help fill agricultural funding gaps?
- Read more about the impact of the Ukraine crisis on food systems.
What is Giving Compass?
We connect donors to learning resources and ways to support community-led solutions. Learn more about us.
As Russia’s war against Ukraine continues, Ukrainian farmers are facing shortages in farming supplies and funding. But farmers are fighting to maintain their livestock and plant spring crops.
According to Mariia Didukh, Director of the Ukrainian National Agrarian Forum (UNAF), farmers are reporting that seeds, fuel, labor, financial resources, veterinary medications, feed, and vaccines for livestock are all in short supply.
UNAF is an association of Ukraine’s five largest agricultural non-profit organizations and unions representing the interests of small, medium, and large-scale farmers. Didukh tells Food Tank that members of UNAF are providing each other with daily updates and discussing the state of the agricultural sector.
According to a recent survey from one of UNAF’s members, the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club (UCAB), poultry production in the country is expected to decrease by 15 percent in 2022. The decrease, Didukh explains, is because of shortages of vaccines, feed, and other inputs.
Farmers are also coping with landmines and destruction by the Russian army. The Odessa Journal reports that 300,000 square kilometers—equivalent to 56,000 football fields—of Ukraine is in need of inspection for mines. The Russian army has also destroyed farmers’ facilities and slaughtered livestock.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA FAS) data show that prior to the war, Ukraine was the seventh largest producer of chicken meat. Now, countries that purchase chicken meat from Ukraine, including Saudi Arabia, Netherlands, Slovakia, United Arab Emirates, and Azerbaijan, will face supply shortages. The survey also shows cattle production will decrease by 15 percent and pig production by 20 percent.
The Ukrainian Agrarian Council (UAC), a member of UNAF, recently produced a video highlighting the war’s impact on Naporivske, a dairy farm located in Lukashivka Village of the Chernihiv Region. “Everything that can make a profit, that can give life, that can feed people has been destroyed,” Hryhorii Tkachenko, director of Naporivske, states. “The losses are enormous.”
Read the full article about Ukrainian farmers by Elizabeth Rhoads at Food Tank.