The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) administrator Samantha Power announced that USAID’s Agriculture Resilience Initiative – Ukraine (AGRI-Ukraine) is going to be expanding its Bayer partnership to invest an additional $15.5 million according to a release. The investment will go towards new technology and innovation, seed donations and farmer safety.
Bayer is planning to increase access to Climate FieldView. Climate FieldView is a farming platform that is digitalized and uses technology to optimize fertilizer and pesticide use reduce labor, improve water management and increase yields. The company will help by supporting technician jobs and find grant-funding for farmers so that they can purchase equipment to use Climate FieldView effectively.
In addition, Bayer will continue providing seed to farmers for free. These seeds are distributed by AGRI-Ukraine. In the past year, 25,000 households received seed to help with increasing Ukrainian food security and income sources.
Bayer will donate a large amount of vegetable seeds for spring including onions, cabbage, tomato, carrot, cucumber, squash, pepper and eggplant in addition to 1,700 bags of oil seed rape. They are also launching its War-related Hazards on Agricultural Lands Campaign in addition to the investments. The partnership is working with Fondation Suisse de Déminage (FSD) to provide education to farmers regarding how dangerous landmines and other hazards are as well as how to be safe on agricultural land that has been impacted by the Russian invasion.
The partnership announcement is in addition to the initial partnership from “October 2022 to help support Ukrainian farmers and address the global food security crisis”, according to the release. The partnership hopes to increase agricultural production and decreased the food security crisis caused by the Russian invasion of the Ukraine.
AGRI-Ukraine has reached over 30% of Ukraine’s registered farmers with an invested $350 million. According to the release, “thanks to USAID support, farmers have been able to pack and store 843,268 metric tons of grain, and more than 600 farmers have accessed almost $49.8 million in desperately needed bridge-financing.” Loans of over $1.4 million have been shared with more than 600 micro and small agricultural producers.
More information: www.usaid.gov/ukraine/agriculture-resilience-initiative-agri-ukraine
