Ukrainian farmers are entering the height of field work with a critical shortage of personnel and uncertainty regarding the reservation (deferment from military service) of workers.

The Ukrainian Agri Council (UAC) states that without a prompt government decision, some farms may be left without the necessary specialists and suffer significant losses.

At the same time, the government has still not responded to the UAC's appeal regarding the expansion of opportunities for reserving workers, said the UAC's consultant on accounting and taxation, Lesia Pankratova, on the air of the "We are Ukraine" TV channel.

"So far, unfortunately, we have no response, but we are currently awaiting the resolution of this issue, because right now the process of re-confirming criticality and re-reserving their workers is underway for absolutely all enterprises, not only in the agricultural sphere. Due to the mobilization of a significant part of machine operators and drivers, the industry's human resources are almost exhausted. In the event of further tightening of reservation conditions, many farms risk being left without the necessary workers during the most crucial period of field work," she emphasized.

Recently, the UAC appealed to the Cabinet of Ministers with a request to temporarily increase the quota for the reservation of military-liable workers of agricultural enterprises to 70% and to revise the criteria for determining critically important enterprises.

In its appeal, the UAC stressed that the current approach creates unequal conditions for small producers and may lead to an outflow of personnel.

"This approach effectively destroys small farmers, because under current conditions their workers will either be mobilized or will resign in order to find employment at enterprises that have critical status and the ability to reserve personnel. A large number of agricultural enterprises, without the possibility of fair reservation of workers, will be forced to cease operations at the height of the field work season, or will not manage to cultivate and harvest existing crops in time, which will lead to losses both for the agricultural sector and for the country as a whole," the appeal states.

The UAC warns that the untimely resolution of the reservation issue may slow down the harvesting campaign, which will lead to losses for agricultural enterprises and the economy of Ukraine.