Four agricultural service cooperatives in the conflict-affected Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine today are receiving agricultural equipment for land cultivation – to improve production of cereal, forage, and oil-bearing crops. The distribution is the latest stage in FAO’s project to support farming cooperation in eastern Ukraine.

A chronic lack of modern sowing and harvesting equipment remains one of Ukraine’s main obstacles to increasing grain output and quality. Yet many small and medium-scale farms in the conflict-affected eastern regions struggle to obtain the necessary long-term loans for capital investments.

One component of the project – which is financed by the Government of Canada – aims to raise incomes, create employment opportunities for the rural poor, and improve their technical capacities by improving the economic environment and developing cooperatives.