USAID program helps Ukrainian farmers harvest 5.5 mln tonnes of grain since 2022

MOSCOW. Oct 17 (Interfax) - The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Agriculture Resilience Initiative (AGRI)-Ukraine plans to continue providing support to Ukrainian farmers, Ukrainian media outlets cited the program as saying in a statement on social media.

Since July 2022, more than 15,000 Ukrainian farmers, or over 34% of the country's registered agricultural producers, have received seeds, fertilizers, plant protection products, produce storage devices, as well as financing for agricultural production as part of the USAID's AGRI-Ukraine initiative, the organization said. This support helped collect and store more than 5.5 million tonnes of grain, bringing over $1 billion in revenue to the Ukrainian economy.

Projects to develop capacities for grain storage and subsequent processing will continue, the program said. Specifically, 25 partner silos will double their grain storage capacity and will create additional opportunities for storing more than 1 million tonnes of grain annually, compensating for around 15% of the capacity lost during the crisis. As a result, more than 1,000 micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) will gain access to grain storage and processing services.

The AGRI-Ukraine initiative is also implementing 20 projects to process grain, oilseeds and legumes into food products, animal feed and industrial products. As part of these projects, processing enterprises will invite more than 1,200 MSMEs to take part in this cooperation and will create additional capacities for processing over 1.1 million tonnes of agricultural produce per year.