The plan for the priority return of agricultural land to economic use from the beginning of 2024 has been updated. From now on, according to the plan of priority inspection and if necessary, more than 512,000 hectares of agricultural land are due to be cleared and demined. This was reported by Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Economy.
“Over the past year, sappers have completed a significant amount of work on the survey and demining of agricultural land. Let me remind you that 274,000 hectares were surveyed, which was more than half of the territories that were planned to be returned to farmers for use within four years. Therefore, the plan was revised. New lands were added to it, to be demined in the first place. Now our focus is to return more than 512,000 hectares of land to economic use,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko.
In his turn, Deputy Minister of Economy Ihor Bezkaravaynyi said that the plan had been updated based on revised data from the RMAs (regional military administrations) and proposals from operators. Representatives of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food and the Ministry of Economy worked on the document. According to him, the implementation of the updated plan will allow, among other things, to use available resources more rationally.
“In short, we have achieved a lot over the past year through the joint efforts of all parties involved. Today, we have almost thirty operators instead of six, as it was a year ago. And their number will only increase. We have about 30 demining vehicles, which we did not have at the beginning of last year. And there will be even more of them. Accordingly, we have to adjust our plans to make systematic and, most importantly, rational use of new opportunities. At the same time, we realize that the most challenging work is ahead. Mine action is approaching the areas where intense fighting took place. And this may slow down the pace of sappers’ advance. So we are looking at the plan with moderate optimism,” noted Ihor Bezkaravaynyi.
According to the updated plan, the priority return of land to economic use will take place in 8 regions. It also provides for surveys and, if necessary, clearance and demining in: Donetsk region – 12,800 hectares, Chernihiv region – 2,000 hectares, Sumy region – 85 hectares, Dnipropetrovsk region – 6,600 hectares, Kyiv region – 9,400 hectares, Mykolaiv region – 44,000 hectares, Kharkiv region – 190,000 hectares and Kherson region – 248,000 hectares.
Last year more than 200,000 hectares of agricultural land were returned to farmers for economic use. (Government portal/Business World Magazine)
