Continued armed conflict and related instability have inflicted enormous losses on the agricultural sector in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Yet, as the rest of the economy declines subsistence farming has taken on new importance. It could even become a driver of the local economy, according to a report released today by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Farmers along the conflict line face high interest rates, difficult access to financing, lack of farm machinery for lease, and no remaining markets for their milk, vegetables or fruit. Nevertheless, one in four adults in the affected area would like to start his or her own business in the agriculture sector, FAO found.