The total amount of land controlled by oligarchs, corrupt individuals, and large
agribusinesses is thus over nine million hectares, exceeding 28 percent of the country’s arable land. The
rest is used by over eight million Ukrainian farmers.
Part 7 - Are Ukrainians supportive of the land reform?
The law was passed while over 64 percent of the population was against it, seeing the creation of a land market as detrimental to farmers and citizens while catering to the oligarchs and corrupt officials.
While proponents of the land reform like the World Bank have argued it will bring about economic growth, they have explicitly stated that this growth is expected to come from pushing poorer, smaller farmers out of agriculture, and helping larger landholdings grow, as the price of land rises.
Moreover, as most private agricultural land remains under lease agreements with large-scale farms in coming years, the land may not even be available for individual farmers to purchase before 2024, when they start facing competition from big businesses that will always be able to outbid them. Due to the country’s rampant corruption and weak rule of law, small farmers will likely have few avenues to assert their rights in the face of this increasing competition from agribusinesses.
Finally, the few concessions included in the law are inadequate. For instance, the ban on foreign owners from acquiring land would require tracing and enforcement, which are highly unlikely to materialize within the current global economic system where companies and subsidiaries constantly change hands and are financed and owned without transparency.
The creation of a land market is therefore likely to expand the amount of agricultural land in the hands of oligarchs and large agribusiness firms. In December 2022, a coalition of farmers, academics, and NGOs called on the Ukrainian government to suspend the land reform law and all market transactions of land during the war and post-war period. Ukrainians are advocating for “legal, organizational, and financial mechanisms that protect the public interests and guarantee the rural residents, farmers, small-scale agricultural producers, and youth real opportunities for agricultural land purchase."
Comments
Post a Comment