USAID Harvest Activity provides 10 grain dryers to Ukrainian farmers, to supply 7,000 grain sleeves

MOSCOW. Dec 18 (Interfax) - Ukraine's Agrarian Policy and Food Minister Vitaly Koval and representatives of the Harvest Activity program by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have handed over ten grain dryers to Ukrainian farmers, Ukrainian media said, citing the ministry's press service.

"These first ten grain dryers will help more than 100 farmers, allowing them to enhance production, ensure that grain is dried properly and sell their products at 15%-20% value added," Koval said.

The program will also supply Ukrainian farmers with 7,000 grain sleeves to store 1.4 million tonnes of crops over the winter, he said. This initiative will tackle the critical shortage of grain storage capacities in the Chernigov, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Nikolayev, Odessa and some other regions of Ukraine, aiding around 300 local farms 1,000 hectares to 10,000 hectares large.

Koval thanked the Food and Agriculture Program of the United Nations and USAID for carrying out this program with the financial support provided by the Canadian, Japanese and U.S. governments.