The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine and the agricultural associations UKAB (Ukrainian Agribusiness Club) and UAK (Ukrainian Agri Council) have expressed their dissatisfaction with the work of the representative office of the United Nations Agricultural and Production Organization. Food (FAO) in Ukraine.

The Ministry of Agriculture was contacted by representatives of specialized associations, as well as small and medium-sized farmers, 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 the regions affected by the war.

For example, in early March 2024, FAO promised to provide Ukrainian small and medium-sized farms and agricultural producers with spring wheat seeds for spring planting. 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 planting campaign is already actively underway in most regions (15 regions). Therefore, the relevance of this project is rapidly declining.

Farmers also have questions about the sunflower and soybean seed supply project, the acceptance of applications for participation in which will continue until March 24. Since the distribution of seeds was planned after March 24, but there is no exact date, farmers cannot plan the sowing and cannot count on this help. Ukrainian farmers began sowing soybeans and sunflowers as early as April.

Another FAO project, supporting farmers with modular granaries with a capacity of 300, 500 and 1,000 tonnes, also raises questions. Farmers had to register by January 21, 2024 to receive the barns. Since then, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy receives complaints from farmers that they have not yet received the granaries and the FAO refuses to provide information on the schedule of promised deliveries.

The Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine calls on the UN Headquarters to pay attention to important problems in organizing the work of this structure in Ukraine. "We will be grateful for the timely assistance to Ukrainian farmers, since compliance with agrotechnical conditions is important in agriculture," they state.