President of the Ukrainian Entrepreneurs League of the Agricultural Complex, president of the Ukrahrobiznes (Ukrainian Agribusiness) publicly held company Leonid Kozachenko:
I know that sooner or later this will happen. But now is too early. We cannot rush with these things, we need solid preparatory work. The legal framework, the infrastructure of the agricultural complex and sales network, forming agricultural enterprises, staff training, all of these things are now in the process of transformation. Under such conditions we need a careful approach to the question of land sale, and preparation is essential. The land will become an object of sales but this will take some time, three or four years I think, on condition that the agricultural crisis ends, the collective sphere is privatized, and the financial resources owned by entrepreneur structures are legalized. Apparently, we will be able to solve the problem after society develops a corresponding world view.
But already today it is essential to take some transition measures like, for example, the right to lease land with corresponding credit resources and the development of a mechanism to appraise land. If the process of reform in agriculture goes faster, the transition period might be reduced to one or two years.
Chairman of the Farmers Association of Ukraine Ivan Tomych:
Land sale is needed beyond any doubt. But before we take this step, we should consider all its possible consequences. Because land is the main production tool for the village, it is also the base of our country, its main treasure. That is why we need a number of mechanisms developed first, which will put in order the sale and use of land.
Today, with the crisis we are suffering, we are not yet ready to sell land. In some places you could buy a plot of land for the price of a bottle of vodka, while in nearby big cities the price will be quite high. The average land price in Ukraine will be much lower than the real European level. But we live in the center of Europe and we should orient ourselves toward Europe. The point is that Ukrainian peasants will not be able to buy land even at a low price. Today they cannot buy fuel and mineral fertilizers. Land sales under such conditions will have negative consequences. To sell land, we need to form the financial conditions to help agricultural producers accumulate money. Selling land would then be the next step.
President of Ukrainian Grain Association Mykola Kompaniyets:
Just as all Ukrainian patriots, I would not want to put arable land on sale, because Ukrainians should own Ukrainian land. This does not have to do with enterprises and investors. We will not receive any serious investments, until investors know their enterprise was built on their own land. This is why I think Parliament should consider this question without delay, because the sooner investors come the better. We can see this from other countries' (Korea, Taiwan, and China) experience. No investment will come to Ukraine until the land is put on sale. Correspondingly, we need to put it on sale, but we should be careful how we do it. I look at the positions of Oleksandr Tkachenko and other Parliament members: from the patriotic point of view they do not want to put the land on sale, but there is no way to avoid it. We need to do something about the crisis in agriculture.
Chairperson of Council of Women Farmers of Ukraine Liudmyla Klebanova:
You can buy land everywhere in the world. This is a positive experience, because in the most countries where it exists people live fine. As to our country, my cooperation with farmers all over Ukraine shows that if Ukraine was put on sale when the peasants had money, which they had some time ago and which disappeared from their USSR saving bank accounts, the land would have a perfect owner. But who would become the owner now?
I am not a politician. From the standpoint of the members of my organization, who work on the land very hard, land sale does not raise enough questions. Let's say people received 5-7 hectares depending on the oblast they live in, but many of them do not have legal documents certifying their ownership, because they do not have Hr 500. I understand, that the land should be owned by someone who can not only work it, but also invest something in it. If we could solve this problem at the expense of peasants' frozen bank accounts. Today even those who already received a land plot cannot afford to cultivate it and simply lease it to collective farms, which do not have money to pay the rent.










