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New State Agrarian Registry enables distribution of €50 million in EU emergency support to small farmers in Ukraine
A horse grazing at high-land pasture at Ukraine's Carpathian Mountains before the war
Fast-tracked for release, a newly launched farm registry is already taking applications for grants to help secure production and protect domestic food security
September 28, 2022
Fifteen months into its implementation, the EU4SmallFarms project in Ukraine has seen significant successes but none bigger so far than the launch of a new State Agrarian Registry. With it’s formal acceptance as an EU candidate state in June this year, Ukraine is required to establish such a register as a precursor to the distribution of agriculture and rural development support through the Union’s Common Agriculture Policy.
Until now, nobody knew how many small farmers – who number anywhere from 1.5 up to 4 million people – actually exist in Ukraine and so neither the Government nor donors have been able to target their support, such as advice, loans, grants, training and equipment, to where it is really needed. This problem has become even more obvious since Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
With its launch on 1 September, the State Agrarian Register will enable the Ukrainian Government and international donors to disburse grants to agricultural producers. By the end of October 2022, the EU had allocated €50 million for an already earmarked 15,000 farmers across Ukraine who are currently supported by the EU4SmallFarms project.
You can read more about the EU4SmallFarms project and its operating vision here.
Launched in July 2021, the NIRAS-managed EU4SmallFarms – or the Institutional Policy Reform for Smallholder Agriculture (IPRSA) project – is supporting the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food (Minagro) with agricultural and rural (as well as forestry and fisheries) policy, legislation and reforms as part of the country’s ambition to become an EU member. When war broke out, the project pivoted from traditional technical assistance to providing much needed coordination of donor agricultural and food security support as well as the related logistics.
Getting help to where it is needed
According to the terms of the programme, funds are provided to agricultural producers who cultivate from 1 to 120 hectares of farmland and/or keep between 3 and 100 cows. Any eligible farm or agri-producer registered in the system can receive assistance of about €85 per hectare of cultivated agricultural land (up to about €10,000) and about €150 per cow reared (up to about €15,000).
Mykola Solskyi, Ukraine’s Minister of Agricultural Policy & Food explains, "Small agricultural producers will use the EU support to start the sowing campaign this fall, buy feed, repair equipment and so on. For its part, Minagro has created the conditions for quick and safe disbursement of the assistance. Applications will be accepted online through the State Agrarian Registry. The decision-making process is simplified and transparent and compliant with the best European practices. At the same time, the Ministry is working on expanding support programmes in the registry, so I urge all agricultural producers to register in the system and follow updates.”
Frederik Coene, Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation to Ukraine, emphasised that as a result of Russia’s unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine, farmers lost a considerable part of their winter crops. “Small agricultural producers, who are the main source of the country's food security and the main producers of products for domestic consumption, are the most affected. Therefore, as part of the latest budget support package allocated by the EU to Ukraine in July of this year, small farmers will receive emergency support of EUR 50 million,” he remarked.
The list of applications approved for payment is formed on a monthly basis, so the first payments will go to farmers already at the end of October. The Ukrainian State Support Fund for Farming (Ukrderzhfund) is responsible of managing the scheme. The programme covers the entire country, except for territories that are included in the list of communities located in the area of hostilities or that are under temporary occupation or encirclement, as approved by the Ministry of Reintegration.
A Ukraine-language version of MINAGRO’s press statement is available here: https://minagro.gov.ua/news/mali-agrovirobniki-mozhut-otrimati-dopomogu-cherez-dar
