A joint aid for war-weary Ukraine comes from the European Union and FAO. The project consists of 15.5 million dollars to benefit small agricultural enterprises in the country, with the aim of supporting the operation, strengthening and consolidation of value chains in agriculture, fisheries and forestry and their adaptation to the wartime conditions. The plan will support producers in Lvivska, Ivano-Frankivska, Zakarpatska and some areas of Chernivetska oblast, with corresponding grants for business and value chain investments, together with extension and consultancy support.

“The EU funds for this FAO project aim to re-establish or reinforce pre-war level functionality of agricultural value chains. This is needed to meet the food requirements of local and displaced populations in the west and address food insecurity elsewhere in the country in the immediate and short term, and will be critical to averting a food crisis into 2023", said Christian Ben Hell, Head of Sector for Agriculture at the EU Delegation to Ukraine.

The food security situation in Ukraine deteriorated rapidly following the outbreak of war, which caused widespread destruction of crops and agricultural infrastructure. FAO's recent national assessment of the impact of war on agriculture and rural households reveals that one in four of 5,200 respondents have reduced or stopped agricultural production because of war. Through this EU-funded project, which initially started in February 2021 and then suspended due to the war, emergency agricultural support was provided to over 6000 rural households in March-May 2022. This assistance covered the population's urgent need for agricultural inputs, cash, vegetable seeds and seed potatoes to continue food production for family consumption.

"Although the required analytical work was completed prior to the war, its escalation altered the programming environment and reshaped the priority needs of the agrifood sector participants", said Hanna Antonyuk, Project Manager at FAO Ukraine. "The project -she continues- aims to provide timely support to agricultural producers and small-scale agricultural enterprises with urgently needed access to finance, technical and business development advice and market intelligence".

The investment support program will be launched through the State Agricultural Register (SAR) of Ukraine and, starting in March 2023, the corresponding grants will be provided to agricultural producers and eligible agricultural enterprises.