Farmers Do Not Want To Work at a Loss
Farmers united in the Association of Farmers and Private Land Owners of Ukraine held their XII congress in Kyiv. “The major problem for the development of farming in Ukraine is price policy, that is, a set of economic measures affecting the profitability of agricultural production. This issue is of utmost importance today. If the policy does not change for the better, we will lose all the positives reached in the last two years,” association President Ivan Tomych told The Day before the congress.
The present situation in the agrarian sector spurred Mr. Tomych to appeal to the Ukraine’s president, Verkhovna Rada, and government. In the last several months alone the cost of fuel rose 1.6 times, something that threatens to make most private farms unprofitable. In his assessment, given the present fuel prices, farmers will run up over UAH 1 billion losses during this year’s harvest. Cattle breeding has been also heavily hit, as procurement prices for milk dropped three times, with retail prices for dairy products in stores remaining at their past levels. Such price instability robs farmers of any incentive to go into cattle breeding. According to him, such a price policy bleeds the agricultural economy, destroys any trust farmers might have in reforms, and, specifically, in private property.
Speaking on the way the land reform is going, Mr. Tomych sounded quite laconic, “Serious steps have been taken, but we have heard many words without any concrete meaning.” A blitz-survey taken among the congress delegates made it possible to identify some priority problems faced by the farmers: legal documentation of their land property rights, creation of a land market, and simplification of bureaucratic procedures.
Vitaly LEVYTSKY, Visana private farm owner from the village of Neborivka, Zhytomyr oblast:
“It seems to me that the pace of the land reform has somewhat slowed down recently, perhaps, due to the past elections. The moratorium banning the sale of land until 2005 has had a negative impact on farming as it provides no motive for efficient work. Until now, the residents of Neborivka have not received state certificates confirming their land titles as they have no money to pay for documentation and the promised foreign assistance somehow bypassed our region. True, farmers have certificates for the use of their land shares but the latter do not make the farmers real owners. Although currently I have three certificates, my land seems to be hanging in the air: I even cannot fertilize this land because another regime could come into existence and take away my land, saying I received it illegally. A certificate is not a land title. Farmers must be allowed to buy land now, not merely lease it. In Polissia, my native area, the land becomes covered with shrubs as no one cultivates it. Given the present prices for diesel fuel, sowing will put you in debt.
“If the banks extended long term loans at 10% annual interest instead of short term ones at 28- 30%, this would make it possible for farmers to buy cattle and use land for pasture. But even animal husbandry is idle. When they allow the sale of land, it will already be covered by trees.”
Oleh SHEREMET, farmer from the Boryspil district, Kyiv oblast:
“The approval of the Land Code has stepped up the process of land becoming a commodity. In fact, all the required provisions have been made to begin land sales in one or two years. The code will make it possible to raise the price for land in Ukraine. While a hectare of land in the provinces costs from $100 to $200, it could go up to $500 and higher at once. At present, farmers do not identify themselves with real land owners. Are local authorities opposed to reforms? By no means, as they all want to become large land owners in future.”
Hryhory DEMYANENKO, a farmer from Maryanivka district, Donetsk oblast:
“It is beyond any doubt that the land reform has been a success. I can confirm this, looking back on my ten-year experience in farming. I began farming on twenty hectares, and now lease the land shares of fifty-five villagers, or 370 hectares. I pay them decently for every six hectares of their leased land: 1.5 tons of grain, 1.2 tons of barley, and 300 kg of seeds. In money terms, this comes up to two percent of the land share cost. Farmers are worst plagued by various payments taking lots of time to execute. Probably, it would be better if we paid a little more but in one installment. At present, if you pay one hryvnia, you must have a receipt, with such payments to be made many times.
Addressing the congress delegates, the president of the association noted that private farming develops dynamically, with total land used by private farmers increasing three times since 1999 and the number of farms from 35,000 to 43,000. The association promotes the growth of family farms, a success story in the West where over 90% of agricultural goods is produced by such farms. Answering The Day’s question on his political agenda during his work in Verkhovna Rada, Ivan Tomych replied, “As head of the Committee for Agrarian Policy and Land Relations, my interests cover the whole agrarian sector. We must create equal conditions for the growth of all forms of farming.”
