Ukrainian farmers are being blown up by hidden land mines in their fields every week, says the Ukrainian Agri Council (UAC).

UAC head Andriy Dykun warned that rescuers working in de-occupied Ukrainian territories along the front line, in regions such as Kharkiv, Kherson and Mykolaiv, are receiving thousands of requests for farmland de-mining every week.

Unfortunately, due to stretched resources, the state emergency service of Ukraine cannot reach or provide mine clearance for many of the farmers who seek support.

In light of this, farmers risk losing their crops for the second year in a row if they choose not to work fields. However, if they do opt to plough and till, the farmers risk their own lives due to the explosion risk.

“Due to the threat to life, most farmers [have] skipped the sowing season altogether. In particular, large agricultural enterprises in the Kherson region did not even start the spring sowing season, which is why Ukraine and the EU countries will not receive Kherson vegetables this year,” Dykun said.

Impact

More than 208,000ha of farmland needs to be surveyed for mines in the Kherson Oblast, almost 160,000ha in the Kharkiv Oblast and more than 85,000ha in the Mykolaiv Oblast, according to the UAC.

"In Ukraine, about 174,000 square kilometres of land is currently potentially contaminated. This is the land that is a source of food for about 81 million people around the world.

Farmers continue to risk mine explosions if working their land. \ Ukrainian Agri Council (UAC)

“This is an extremely large amount of work that Ukraine can accomplish only with the help of the international community. Humanitarian de-mining of Ukrainian territories requires 10 times more specialists trained to international standards than are currently working in Ukraine.

“We must all work together to solve this problem to save the world from a food crisis and the lives of Ukrainian civilians from the deadly danger posed by mined areas," said Dykun.

Dairy farmers

Without de-mining, dairy farms in the de-occupied and front line regions will not be able to harvest fodder for livestock and will be forced to significantly reduce or even close their dairy businesses, warned the UAC.

“For Ukraine, this means loss of jobs and loss of motivation for Ukrainians to return to their homes. It is also a big loss of investment, which takes at least 10 years to return in dairy farming,” said the association’s leader.

The war continues to impact farmers in Ukraine. \ Alexander Ermochenko

The UAC estimates the cost of de-mining as ranging from €550 to €3,100 per hectare, a cost it says no farmer can afford.

A farmer in the Kharkiv region, Oleksandr Sazonov, said more than two-thirds of his farm’s land needs “urgent de-mining”.

“The demarcation line passed through our fields and there was very dense mining, not to mention anti-personnel mines or remnants of shelling, which were literally watered down.

“During 2022, during the occupation, we were not able to physically prepare any roughage and the cattle are now eating the remains of the 2021 harvest,” he said.

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