By agreeing to establish a Project Office with the Government, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has increased its presence in Ukraine, a ReliefWeb states citing a FAO report.
This Project Office will make it easier and more widespread to provide technical and humanitarian assistance to the nation’s most vulnerable communities, particularly in rural areas.
Since 2015, the FAO has operated in two strategic directions: emergency humanitarian assistance in conflict-affected oblasts, and agricultural development throughout the entire nation. Ukraine joined the FAO in 2003.
Following the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, Laurent Thomas, FAO Deputy Director-General and signatory to the agreement on behalf of FAO, stated that FAO has increased its activities in the country to support agricultural production and food systems with the goal of preserving the food security of vulnerable households and communities throughout Ukraine.
Food security both locally and globally is in jeopardy as a result of the war in Ukraine’s effects on agricultural productivity and food exports.
The FAO’s Humanitarian Response Update highlights the mounting evidence that interruptions in the food supply chain, rising prices, and declining earnings have had a substantial impact on access to and the affordability of food, leading to a rise in reliance on food assistance.
In the entire nation, and especially in the regions where fighting has been particularly intense, the cost of necessities like food has climbed dramatically. In the last three months, food expenses accounted for more than half of all household spending, according to more than half of the rural households polled by FAO.
Low returns from sales of products, access to fertilizers and pesticides, access to fuel and electricity to power agricultural and farm equipment, and access to animal health products like veterinary medications, animal feed, and feed additives are some of the major challenges in relation to agricultural production that are anticipated in the upcoming months. Also severely lacking is produce storage for the harvest.
