With the start of the spring sowing season, international partners are helping to strengthen food security in the frontline and de-occupied communities of Ukraine, the Committee on Agrarian and Land Policy reports.
Thus, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) together with the Ministry of Agrarian Policy announced the launch of a campaign to provide de-occupied communities and socially vulnerable groups with vegetable seeds for the spring sowing season of 2024.
As part of the AGRI-Ukraine initiative, USAID will provide more than 200,000 war-affected households with vegetable seeds provided by Gowan Seed, Bayer and other seed companies. The 10 tonnes of seeds will be distributed to residents of the liberated and frontline areas, as well as internally displaced persons and socially vulnerable groups (large families, low-income families, etc.) from other regions. This assistance will enable households to grow around 70,000 tonnes of vegetables.
The initiative has been joined by international producers Gowan Seed, Bayer, Enza Zaden and Syngenta, who together donated 10 tonnes of vegetable seeds: carrots, zucchini, melon, tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, onions, cucumbers and sweet corn.
This is a continuation of the work started in March 2022 to support frontline and de-occupied communities in restoring their food security and self-sufficiency.
The seeds will be transferred through local councils under the coordination of the All-Ukrainian Association of Communities (AAC), which is implementing the United Communities project with the support of the USAID AGRO Programme.
It is noted that until February this year, local governments analysed the needs of their communities for seeds (how many internally displaced persons, socially vulnerable families or residents of de-occupied and frontline communities have household plots and need help with seeds.