The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine is obliged to begin restoring the irrigation system of agricultural lands in the south of the country by the end of this year, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said during a meeting devoted to irrigation held on Thursday.
According to the press service of the Cabinet, in addition to Shmyhal, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Roman Leshchenko, representatives of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, the Ministry of Finance, Head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration Vitaliy Kim, Head of the Odesa Regional State Administration Serhiy Hrynevetsky and acting Head of the Kherson Regional State Administration Serhiy Kozyr attended the meeting.
As the Prime Minister said, the President of Ukraine set the Cabinet of Ministers the task to begin the restoration of irrigation systems this year, which means that the government must ensure the prompt transfer of the property complexes of the Ministry of Ecology to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy.
“Today, most of the land reclamation and irrigation infrastructure is managed by the State Water Resources Agency. Accordingly, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, which is responsible for the restoration of irrigation systems, cannot yet begin practical work in this direction. A quick solution to this issue will allow the Ministry of Agrarian Policy to begin implementation of pilot projects to restore irrigation systems this year, and will help farmers to significantly increase their harvest,” Shmyhal said.
As Leshchenko said, irrigation reform is among the main priorities of the ministry.
“This year is defining for us. We understand how to form an institutional and legislative framework, and according to this plan we are ready to move,” the minister said.
Deputy Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Mykhailo Khorev reported that on behalf of the Prime Minister, a meeting had been held, following which a roadmap for transferring property to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy was drawn up.
AGRARIAN POLICY, AGRICULTURAL, AGRICULTURAL LAND, IRRIGATION SYSTEMS
More than half of Ukrainians do not approve of the lifting of the moratorium on agricultural land sales, and 64% believe that this issue should be resolved in a referendum, according to a study conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS)on September 16-19, 2019. According to the survey, 52% of respondents do not approve of the instructions of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to lift the moratorium (ban) on the sale of agricultural land until October this year and the introduction of land sale until December this year. Some 35% of those surveyed are positive about this order, while 13% of respondents had difficulty answering the question.
Some 64% of respondents believe that the issue of agricultural land sale should be solved only in an all-Ukrainian referendum, and 26% believe that the issue should be resolved by the president, the Verkhovna Rada and the Cabinet of Ministers, while 10% of respondents could not answer the question.
Director General of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) Volodymyr Paniotto noted that the number of opponents of land sale has decreased over the year – 72% were against the land sale in November 2018.
The survey was conducted by CATI method (computer-assisted telephone interviews) based on a random sampling of mobile phone numbers. The sample is representative of the adult population of Ukraine (18 years and older). The sample does not include territories temporarily not controlled by the authorities of Ukraine – the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. During the survey, 1,500 interviews were conducted. The sampling error with a probability of 0.95 does not exceed 2.6%.
