By Editor
The United States has announced that its Agricultural Resilience Initiative-Ukraine (AGRI-Ukraine) which it created two years ago to mobilize public and private sector investments to bolster Ukraine’s agricultural production and exports, while helping to alleviate global food insecurity, has attracted over $510 million in private sector and donor investments to Ukraine’s agricultural sector.
In a release by the Press Relations Office of the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, the agency disclosed that the US government had contributed $350 million toward the initiative, which has helped thousands of Ukrainian farmers continue their vital work despite Putin’s brutal war against Ukraine.
The release states, “Since July of 2022, AGRI-Ukraine has helped more than 14,000 Ukrainian farmers – or 32 percent of the country’s registered farmers – receive seeds, fertilizers, crop protection, storage, and financing to produce their harvests. Seeds distributed through AGRI-Ukraine are expected to catalyze production of an additional 430,000 tons of corn and sunflower, worth over $90 million in revenue for Ukrainian farmers”.
Continuing, it states, “When Russia attempted to block Ukraine’s agricultural exports from Black Sea ports, this initiative helped develop and invest in Ukraine’s alternative export routes, like the Danube River ports and Ukraine’s land border crossings. These efforts have resulted in exports of 62 million metric tons of agricultural products by Ukraine, contributing over $17 billion to its economy”.
According to USAID, the $510 million in private sector and donor investments surpassed the Agency’s initial goal by threefold.
It explained further that last year, AGRI-Ukraine expanded its partners, which now include contributions from 26 additional Ukrainian agricultural companies, U.S-based Gowan Seed company, as well as international financial institutions, such as the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development; and that additionally, both the Republic of Korea and Japan’s International Cooperation Agency had joined this effort. Thus, USAID is now focused on mobilizing new partnerships from the private sector and international partners.
The statement affirmed that USAID and its partners remained committed to supporting Ukraine’s agricultural sector and exports to help alleviate the global food security crisis exacerbated by Russia’s war.
