The total amount of land controlled by oligarchs, corrupt individuals, and large
agribusinesses is thus over nine million hectares, exceeding 28 percent of the country’s arable land. The
rest is used by over eight million Ukrainian farmers.
Part 10 - Doesn’t Ukraine need private foreign investments in order to develop and recover from the war?
While international financial institutions claim that attracting private investment for the expansion of industrial agriculture is the way for Ukraine to “develop” and recover from the war, these investments have so far been almost exclusively channeled to large agribusinesses run by oligarchs. This has resulted in increasing land concentration and the expansion of industrial, monocrop agriculture destined for export, which does not benefit the local population and Ukrainian small farmers.
Financial support should be redirected to small farmers, which play a crucial role in guaranteeing the country’s food security but currently lack access to financing.
As called for by Ukrainian civil society, academics, and farmer organizations, the government should create financing and institutional mechanisms that could effectively support Ukrainian farmers but Western donors appear focused on supporting large agribusinesses and oligarchs rather than farmers.