One third of the land in Ukraine has deteriorated due to agriculture

The area of degraded and unproductive arable land in Ukraine exceeds 6.5 hectares (20% of arable land). Every year, due to erosion, almost 300-600 million tons of soil are lost. This is evidenced by the latest data of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, agroday.com.ua reported.

As noted in the organization, depending on the level of degradation processes, yields can be reduced to 50%, and losses from shortage of products amount to more than 20 billion UAH per year. The agricultural sector alone leads to the emergence of 35-40% of all degraded land in Ukraine.

After signing the UN Convention on Combating Desertification, Ukraine undertook to restore degraded land and soils until 2030. However, up to now, there are more than 1.1 million hectares of degraded, unproductive and technologically polluted land subject to conservation. "And measures for reclamation of disturbed lands are not being carried out satisfactorily," Ostap Semerak, the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine added.

Now FAO is to help Ukraine achieve a balance between the processes of land degradation and its natural and artificial recovery. Within three years, the legislative and institutional structure will be improved.

In addition, the project will work on updating standards in planting forest belts.

Within the framework of the project, FAO plans to demonstrate measures to restore soil stability on an area of 7,500 hectares. Such events are planned in the Kyiv, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions - territories located in different natural and climatic zones.

Demonstration activities will take place in the fields of the Leonid Pohorilyi Ukrainian Research Institute for the prediction and testing of agricultural machinery and technologies, agro holding AgroGeneration and separate territorial communities. The project will be implemented in Ukraine until 2021.