Even 20% of the cost on demining is difficult for farmers to pay

Ukraine is the most contaminated country in the world with explosive ordnance. More than 150 thous. sq km of our territory is mined. Among them, these are mostly agricultural land.

Currently, there are three ways for mine action operators and farmers to operate in terms of paying for humanitarian demining.

The first is to carry out work at the expense of donors. But at the same time, international donors pay for demining work exclusively to international organizations, not Ukrainian ones. Therefore, this option is not available for Ukrainian operators.

The second is that the customer, who has mined lands, pays for the work on his own.

The third is the main one, which is counted on by both mine action operators and farmers. We are talking about the state compensation program. The program, adopted a month ago, provides for compensation to farmers at the level of 80% of the cost, and farmers pay 20% on their own. The process takes place through the Prozorro system. The program stipulates that the farmer pays exclusively for demining works, and non-technical inspection is carried out by mine action operators at their own expense. According to the existing program, UAH 3 billion has been allocated to finance 80% of the cost of work by the state, but applications from farmers have not been received. In fact, even before the launch of the compensation program, both farmers and mine action operators repeatedly emphasized that farmers do not have the funds to pay for demining, even if the state covers 80% of the cost.

By the way, just the other day, Deputy Minister of Economy Ihor Bezkaravainyi confirmed that farmers "are not very actively applying" to participate in the compensation program. This confirms that farmers cannot "pull" even 20%.

Therefore, in the existing realities, and we have repeatedly emphasized this, it would be advisable to provide 100% compensation to farmers.

As for the work of operators, there is also a regulatory field that needs to be revised.

For example, it would be advisable to fix the profit margin of operators at 25%, as it is done for operators of the arms market.

This will allow operators to invest in business development: from improving the material base to introducing modern technologies.

Especially considering that demining prices in Ukraine are much lower than market prices compared to other European countries. For example, the approximate cost of manual demining services in Croatia is 4-5 dollars/sq.m., mechanized — 0.9-1.2 dollars/sq.m. In general, in European countries, the cost of demining ranges from a few euros to several tens of euros, depending on the conditions and scope of work.

Despite the difficult working conditions, the cost of demining in Ukraine is still several times cheaper than in Europe. Ukrainian operators, even taking into account the profit of 25%, can perform manual demining work at $3/sq.m., and mechanized demining at the level of $0.5/sq.m.

Therefore, stimulating and supporting the market is extremely important.