Over 200,000 hectares of demined land returned to farmers in 2023: effect on Ukraine's economy

Ukrainian mine clearance teams surveyed 274,000 hectares of agricultural land in 2023, with 208,000 hectares already handed over to farmers.

Source: Yuliia Svyrydenko, Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister, on Facebook

Details: One-third of Ukraine's land is potentially contaminated by mines, and Svyrydenko stressed that much of it is agricultural. That means unploughed fields, unharvested crops, downtime, lost income and jobs, and unpaid taxes.

At the beginning of 2023, Ukraine had no heavy mine clearance vehicles, 6 mine action operators and 1,500 bomb disposal experts.

"We started the New Year with nearly 30 vehicles, 26 operators and over 3,000 mine clearance personnel, and with the commitment of our partners to invest half a billion euros in humanitarian mine clearance. Some partner countries and international organisations have already begun to disburse these funds," Svyrydenko added.

These tools have enabled mine action personnel from Ukraine's State Emergency Service, State Special Transport Service and private operators to survey 274,000 hectares of agricultural land, 58% of the amount planned to be surveyed over a four-year period.

"And most importantly, 208,000 hectares of this land have been transferred to farmers," the minister said.

"If we apply this year's national average wheat yield (47.9 centners per hectare), that’s almost a million tonnes of grain. At New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) prices, that’s more than US$225 million or UAH 8.4 billion if we sell the grain abroad. That’s about 750,000 tonnes of flour or about 6 million loaves of bread on store shelves every day for a year. And if farmers sow sunflowers, for example, on the land that has been brought back into use this year, Ukrainians will have an additional 266 million bottles of oil," the deputy prime minister added.

The total area of Ukrainian land potentially contaminated with explosive devices was 174,000 sq. km at the start of last year, compared to 156,000 sq. km at present.

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