FAO in Ukraine disrupts international aid to farmers
25.03.2024 - 15:01
The Ukrainian representative office of the FAO is disrupting the organization of international aid, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food announced.
The Ministry of Agricultural Policy and the agrarian associations “UCAB” and ” Ukrainian Agrarian Council” expressed their dissatisfaction with the work of the representative office of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations FAO in Ukraine, Ministry of Agrarian Policy reported.
Representatives of specialized associations, as well as small and medium-sized farmers, appealed to the Ministry of Agriculture, who reported that the FAO does not implement, does not fully implement, or implements in a timely manner some of the international aid projects for war-affected regions.
For example, at the beginning of March, FAO promised to provide Ukrainian small and medium-sized farms and agricultural producers with spring wheat seeds for spring sowing. Applications were accepted until March 10, 2024. However, to date, farmers have not received the promised seeds.
It should be noted that the spring wheat sowing campaign is already actively underway in most regions (15 regions). Therefore, the relevance of this project is rapidly decreasing.
The project to provide sunflower and soybean seeds also raises questions among farmers, the acceptance of applications for participation continues until March 24. Since the distribution of seeds is planned after 24.03, but there is no exact date, farmers are unable to plan sowing and cannot count on this assistance. Ukrainian farmers start sowing soybeans and sunflowers already in April.
Another project from FAO – support to farmers with modular granaries with a capacity of 300, 500 and 1000 tons – also raises questions. Farmers had to register by January 21, 2024 to receive granaries. Since then, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy has been receiving complaints from farmers, as they have not yet received the granaries, and the FAO refuses to provide information on the timing of the promised deliveries.
The Ministry of Agriculture asked the central office of the UN FAO to pay attention to significant problems in the organization of the work of this structure in Ukraine.
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