Good evening and good morning.
My name is Mykhailo Amosov. I'm here representing a government organization known as Ecoaction. Here are a few words about food security issues in Ukraine and in the world.
As the previous speaker said, a lot of agricultural land was actually occupied, bombed or attacked by Russian missiles and military equipment, etc. This illegal Russian invasion completely changed everything in every sector of the Ukrainian economy and agriculture.
This year, in 2022, Ukraine sowed seven million hectares less of agricultural crops than the previous year. It will cause shortages on the world food market. Actually, I see more risks for global food security than for only Ukrainian food security as a lot of countries, such as Yemen, Egypt, Indonesia and Bangladesh, really depend on Ukrainian grain exports. Even if these countries find alternatives to Ukrainian grain, these alternatives will be really expensive for them. We should find a way to help to export Ukrainian grains from Ukraine.
In Ukraine, we saw that the main problem is logistics for Ukrainian agribusiness, because a lot of silos and warehouses were destroyed by Russians. Actually, when all these objects were destroyed, we felt really big food shortages in the first days in supermarkets and in every store. We see this huge Ukrainian dependence on big agribusiness. Here we need to give more support for small and medium-sized Ukrainian agricultural farms, as we see them as more adaptable to new realities.
Even now, small, medium-sized and private households are producing more foods, more vegetables and more fruits than big agribusiness. For example, southern parts of Ukraine, like Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, were providing a lot of fruits and berries to other parts of Ukraine. Now it will be a big problem for Ukrainian citizens to build a healthy diet for everybody in Ukraine. These watermelons and cherries, etc., were produced by small and medium-sized farms. There was not a big involvement of the big agribusinesses there.
We need more state support for small farmers as they're more adaptable. As an environmental organization, we see it as more sustainable to the environment than big agribusiness.
That's it from my side. I'm happy to respond to any questions you have.
Thank you.