From: New Voice of Ukraine by Dimitri Salimonov
Return to life: $30 billion and millions of hectares that must feed the world again. Why investments in demining are not expenses but a key element of Ukraine’s recovery and global food security.
Before the full-scale invasion, Ukraine fed 400 million people worldwide and supplied agricultural products to EU countries, North Africa, and Asia, providing about 10% of global grain supplies. In 2021, Ukraine was the second-largest grain exporter in the world by volume, second only to the United States. Revenue then amounted to $12.5 billion. The war changed everything. Due to occupation and mining, one-fifth of all agricultural lands in Ukraine remain inaccessible for cultivation, amounting to about 6 million hectares. It is critically important to return them to use as soon as possible. Ukraine is actively and persistently working on this with the help of international partners.
The scale of challenges is striking
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, in 2024, over 286,000 hectares of agricultural land were demined. In total, since the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine, more than 3,100 square kilometers (310,000 hectares) of agricultural territories have been returned to use, of which 225,000 hectares were sown and yielded a harvest.
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