The Ukrainian Agri Council (UAC) has appealed to the government with an official letter calling for an urgent resolution of the critical situation with staffing agricultural enterprises.

 

Farmers emphasize that due to shortcomings in the current reservation (deferment) system and the sharp tightening of regional criteria for determining the criticality of enterprises, the industry has found itself on the verge of stoppage at the height of the field work season.

The Ukrainian Agri Council (UAC) has appealed to the government with an official letter calling for an urgent resolution of the critical situation with staffing agricultural enterprises.

Farmers emphasize that due to shortcomings in the current reservation (deferment) system and the sharp tightening of regional criteria for determining the criticality of enterprises, the industry has found itself on the verge of stoppage at the height of the field work season.

As noted in the UAC's appeal to the Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Svyrydenko, the human resources of agricultural production are currently "almost exhausted as a result of mobilization." The main cause of the crisis is the failure to account, within the quotas, for those workers who were mobilized in the period from February 24, 2022, to May 18, 2024 (before Resolution No. 76 entered into force).

"At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, it was specifically workers in the agricultural sector who were actively mobilized, as the Armed Forces of Ukraine had a high need for machine operators and drivers. Therefore, by the time Resolution No. 76 entered into force, agricultural enterprises had already lost a large part of their human resources, yet were granted the right to reserve the same percentage of available workers as enterprises where, at that time, mobilization had not even begun," the farmers explain.

The UAC warns that "further ignoring of this problem threatens the country's food security through a reduction in agricultural production."

A second serious problem for the industry has been the new requirements of the Regional Military Administrations (RMAs) regarding confirmation of enterprises' critical status, which were to be revised by June 10, 2026. An analysis of the draft amendments indicates a substantial increase in the requirements for minimum land area, sales volumes, and tax payments. In particular, the UAC cites the following examples of tightened criteria:

• Kirovohrad RMA: an increase in the cultivated land requirement from 100 ha to 200 ha, as well as an increase in the tax burden from UAH 3,200 to UAH 3,800 per 1 ha.
• Odesa RMA: an increase in the land area requirement from 100 ha to 200 ha, and in the sales volume from 250 tonnes to 400 tonnes.
• Sumy RMA: raising the income threshold from UAH 5 million to UAH 8 million, and tax payments to the local budget from UAH 50,000 to UAH 400,000.
• Rivne RMA: an increase in the land limit from 40 ha to 50 ha, as well as raising the minimum number of employees requirement from 5 to 10 people.

The UAC emphasizes that such innovations effectively deprive small businesses of the ability to reserve 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... Moreover, this approach may be perceived as a deliberate policy of clearing agricultural land of small farmers in favor of large agricultural enterprises," the appeal stresses.

To prevent the disruption of the harvest and further losses for the country's economy, the UAC calls on the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to take immediate measures:

1. Amend Resolution No. 76 to allow all workers mobilized from an enterprise since the beginning of the full-scale war to be counted toward the reservation quota.
2. Temporarily increase the reservation quota for agricultural enterprise workers to 70% (until those already mobilized are practically taken into account).
3. Introduce a single criterion for determining an enterprise as critically important within the RMA industry requirements, with a cultivated area of 100 ha or more.

"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 UAC emphasized.