The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Bayer announced a new donation of high-quality vegetable seeds to Ukrainian farmers to help address the crisis created by Putin’s full-scale invasion against Ukraine. Bayer will make the donation as a partner in USAID’s Agriculture Resilience Initiative for Ukraine (AGRI-Ukraine), which engages the private sector to bolster Ukraine’s export and agricultural sector needs.
USAID and Bayer are proud to support Ukrainian farmers with a new donation of carrot seeds distributed to the farmers most in need. The first shipment is expected to supply up to 25,000 households and micro-farmers, with priority given to farmers in newly-liberated areas. USAID and Bayer will continue to identify additional needs for seeds throughout the planting cycle. This is an important example of what can be accomplished when the private sector and U.S. government partner to maximize impact. These types of partnerships are what Ukraine needs now.
Bayer’s investment builds on the company’s more than 25 years of support to Ukraine’s agriculture sector. In addition to this latest donation, Bayer is investing more than $35 million to boost the capacity of the company’s seed processing facility in Ukraine as part of its participation in AGRI-Ukraine. Bayer has also already donated more than 40,000 bags of corn seed that will enable more than 1,750 smaller farmers to grow food and has donated funds for a mechanical mine clearing machine to help farmers grow food safely in coordination with demining operations funded by the U.S. Department of State.
Since its launch in July 2022, AGRI-Ukraine has targeted Ukraine’s immediate agricultural export challenges. At the same time, the initiative supports the wider needs of Ukraine’s agriculture sector and will bolster Ukraine’s continued production of agricultural commodities through 2023. AGRI-Ukraine will increase Ukrainian farmers’ access to critical agricultural inputs, including seeds, fertilizer, equipment, and pesticides, enhance Ukrainian infrastructure capacity and capability to efficiently export agricultural goods, increase farmers’ access to financing, and expand the capacity of Ukrainian businesses to dry and temporarily store and process agricultural commodities.
EDITOR’S TAKE:
The overall objective for AGRI-Ukraine is to help offset the devastation and hunger caused by the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Many Ukrainian farmers have been forced to operate under severe restrictions due to attacks on their farms. This donation by Bayer through USAID can certainly provide some much-needed assistance during this extreme time of need. In addition to the seeds and other farm inputs, efforts to create additional capacity for storage and processing will be significant in feeding people under siege.
