December 25, 2023, 16:46
© AFZU
Chairman of the Association of Farmers and Private Landowners of Ukraine Viktor Goncharenko calls on the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to immediately contact the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine with a request to speed up the procedure for passing bills No. 8295, 9341, 9341-1, which have been under consideration for a long time. According to the head of the AFZU, there is an urgent and extraordinary need to finalize documents and make decisions to postpone for the duration of martial law and the five post-war years the planned implementation from January 1, 2024 of the sale to individuals and legal entities of up to 10 thousand hectares of agricultural land
President of the Ukrainian Farmers Association Viktor Goncharenko said in a comment to ZN.UA:
“For a very long time we did not actively go public in connection with the war, having decided not to undermine the situation in the country and to conduct an official internal dialogue with the authorities. During the year of the war, dozens of appeals were written to the ministry, the government, and the president, to which we received no response. But we still want to hope that our Parliament will listen to public opinion and meet us. The authorities must listen to the voice of rural residents, farmers, scientists, civil society and people for whom the fate of the country and subsequent generations is important. Ukrainian land.
There are only a few days left until the New Year, so “today we need to act specifically, clearly, quickly.” We must do what depends on us to preserve the future for our children and grandchildren.
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Let us recall that on December 12, the International Forum “Small producers guarding food security” was held: UN Declaration on the Rights of Rural Residents and Other People Working in Rural Areas”, dedicated to the implementation of the rights of rural residents during the war and during the post-war reconstruction of the country. About 150 people took part in the forum in person, 300 people joined online, despite for a long-term communication failure.
The key issue of the forum was the need to respect the rights of rural residents to land, given its importance in the life support system of the rural population. After all, land for village residents is life, home, work.
“All participants of the International Forum were determined to hear answers to one question – what will happen to the land? If a rural resident does not have access to land, then further talk about planning future life in the countryside becomes a fantasy,” noted Viktor Goncharenko.
According to him, the greatest concern among the community of rural residents and farmers is the opening of the final stage of the land market from January 1, 2024 with the possibility of purchasing a land plot of up to 10 thousand hectares. In conditions of war, this step will have tragic consequences for the fate of the country.
AFZU
The next day, December 13, the Association of Farmers and Private Landowners held a meeting, which was attended not only by council members, but also by farmers from all over the country. First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Taras Vysotsky, who spoke at the Forum the day before, was invited to the meeting. The main topic of the meeting was the issue of the land market and mechanisms for introducing the provisions of the UN Declaration into the legislative field of Ukraine.
Within a few days after the Forum, the organizers received numerous proposals for the final document – a resolution. The vast majority of them concerned the sale of land. The proposals were discussed not only among farmers, but also with representatives of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, and the UN FAO Office in Ukraine. After processing and finalizing the resolution, it was submitted to regional and national authorities, international organizations, European Union institutions, etc.
Based on the results of the Forum, an appeal was prepared to the central authorities of the country, to which a response was received from the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. According to the statements of people’s deputies, On December 22, the issues raised at the Forum were to be discussed at the level of the Cabinet of Ministers to further determine the further action plan.
Where are the farmers:
– focus on the urgent need to strengthen the protection of the rights of rural residents to land in Ukraine as a necessary condition for the realization of all other human rights, in particular the rights to living space, food sovereignty, work, a decent standard of living, health and cultural development;
– support the initiative of deputies of the Verkhovna Rada to amend the Constitution of Ukraine on the recognition of the rural-farm type of management in agriculture as the basis of the domestic agrarian system;
– call on the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to immediately appeal to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine with a request to speed up the procedure for passing bills No. 8295, 9341, 9341-1, which have been under consideration for a long time, for their immediate and extraordinary revision and decision-making on postponing the planned implementation from January 1, 2024 for the duration of martial law and five post-war years d. sales to individuals and legal entities of up to 10 thousand hectares of agricultural land;
– pay special attention to the need to immediately stop the overconcentration of agricultural land in the hands of individuals and interest groups under private ownership rights, and countering Land Grabbing, especially given the Russian Federation’s unprecedented use of food as a weapon of war against Ukraine.
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After the Ukrainian authorities put land into circulation in the spring of 2020 and did not allow farmers to gain muscle by curtailing their financial support programs, it became obvious that the state, when developing agriculture, would rely on agricultural holdings according to the Latin American version. Unfortunately, it not only relies on big business and forms a new cluster of agro-oligarchs, but is also gradually ousting the rural middle class from the economic map of the country. In essence, it is bleeding rural communities, which are the majority in the country. And this is nonsense for Europe, where we are planning to enter under an accelerated procedure. Read more about this in Inna Vedernikova’s article for ZN.UA “War and theft.” Who is seizing agricultural lands in Ukraine and why?
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