Compensation for demining: who can apply and how
10 July 2024 16:13
The State Agrarian Register has launched a tool for farmers to apply for participation in the programme to compensate for the cost of demining agricultural land. The programme applies to both land directly owned by the farmer and land leased by him. This was reported by "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine.
The state budget allocated UAH 3 billion for the compensation programme.
“Today, we have launched a tool in the State Agrarian Register that will make it as easy as possible for farmers who want to clean up their land plots and do so with the support of the state. The state will cover 80% of the cost of land clean-up,”
– said Yulia Svyrydenko, First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Economy of Ukraine.
Which farmers can participate in the demining programme
The programme is open to farmers whose land is located in the de-occupied territories, where contamination or possible contamination with explosive ordnance has been confirmed after a non-technical survey.
Also, farms:
- must not have a tax debt;
- not be bankrupt;
- not belong to citizens of the aggressor state;
- not be on the sanctions list.
“The Ministry of Economy has prepared transparent procedures and uniform rules for all programme participants. Both farmers and mine action operators will be able to see how the price is formed, who took part in the bidding and what the final cost of demining a particular area is,”
– explained Ihor Bezkaravaynyi, Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine.
How to apply for mine clearance compensation
You can submit an application here: https://www.dar.gov.ua/
The Humanitarian Demining Centre verifies the applications submitted by farmers. It also announces auctions for demining services in the Prozorro system, and after determining the winning operator and the final cost of demining, transfers 80% of the amount to a special account. The farmer pays another 20% to the account.
“We have simplified the technical procedure for farmers to form an application in the State Agrarian Register as much as possible. Most of the data is pulled up at the stage of registration of the farmer in the SAR. Then it takes only a few mouse clicks to fill in the application and apply a digital signature. We tried to make the application process convenient and clear, so that even a farmer who has registered in the system for the first time could do it,”
– commented on the launch of the new toolkit Volodymyr Baida, Director of the Humanitarian Demining Centre, whose experts implemented the development together with the Ministry of Agrarian Policy.
Two state-owned banks, Privatbank and Oschadbank, are currentlyparticipating in the programme. Over time, other banks with a state share of more than 50% will join the programme. Accordingly, a farmer needs to open an account with one of these banks to receive funds.
The mine action operator will receive the entire reserved amount upon completion of demining and confirmation of the work performed by the Centre.
How to receive compensation for land already cleared of mines
A farmer can also receive compensation for already demined agricultural land between 24 February 2022 and 15 April 2024. To do this, he or she must fill out and submit an Application for Compensation to the Humanitarian Demining Centre: [email protected].
The application must be attached to the EDS:
- a copy of the contract with a certified operator for demining services;
- copies of acts of services rendered confirming demining;
- copies of payments confirming payment for demining services.
In the first six months of the year, Ukrainian sappers cleared over 156,000 hectares of agricultural land and returned it to use.
The highest rate of demining is in Kherson Oblast – 146,000 hectares. This is almost 60% of the planned area for this year. In the first half of the year, 11,300 hectares were cleared in Kharkiv region and 8,300 hectares in Mykolaiv region.
