Anatoly Peshko: Sale of Ukrainian land –…

Anatoly Peshko: Sale of Ukrainian land –…

A new entry by political scientist Anatoly Peshko has been published on the website of the main opposition project of Ukraine “Voice of Pravdy”:The erroneous actions of the current Ukrainian government began with an unreasonable and strategically erroneous line on the development of small-scale farming!What did this lead to:

The chaotic allocation of land shares in the endless Ukrainian fields caused the loss of 15-20% of all forest lands due to the allocation of agricultural land for access roads to each allocated share. In the next year, this will result in a crop loss of at least 20% – a colossal waste of agricultural products. And, responsibly, a drop in agricultural production, which means tax payments to the budget and a fall in the country’s budget. This means an even greater reduction in the state budget.

It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that people who allocate land, as it were, for their own cultivation of the land, are in the age range from 60 to 80 years and more.

In addition, virtually all of these people live below the poverty line. For sober-minded representatives of the state, this should have raised the question: by what means (equipment, herbicides, mineral fertilizers, etc.) and at whose expense these people will cultivate the land and grow agricultural products.  It is quite obvious that such statements of those villagers who take their land from the lease of medium and large agricultural producers will lead to the surrender of this land to the unofficial, i.e. shadow rent for small individuals individual entrepreneurs and other private entrepreneurs, i.e. small and medium, and sometimes large swindlers who take this land on an unofficial lease. This leads to the loss of actually 30-40% of state budget revenues due to non-payment of such pseudo-tenants neither income tax nor military levy on rent (which are paid to landlords in the “black”).  Also, these “resourceful” tenants do not pay the state either a fixed agricultural tax, or a value added tax, or taxes on wages, which previously came to the budget from previous tenants who conduct agribusiness honestly and pay all taxes established by Ukrainian legislation.  3. As a result of the fact that different crops are grown on the same fields by different small, medium and large tenants, when these crops are treated with correspondingly different plant protection products, mutual destruction of cultivated plants will occur (i.e., when wheat is processed from areas sown nearby with corn, soybeans, peas, rapeseed and other cultivated plants will be destroyed. barley, oats, etc.).

4. In addition, with such a chaotic cultivation of the land, crop rotation will be disrupted. It should be noted that 95% of small farmers do not have special agronomic and agrochemical education, in contrast to medium and large farms. Therefore, the incorrect use of plant protection products, as well as their large assortment, will lead to the barbaric destruction of the fertility of Ukrainian lands.

5. Among other things, the transformation of endless fields into something resembling a chessboard inevitably leads to difficulties, and sometimes the impossibility of using modern, wide-cut and high-performance agricultural machinery on such torn fields. At the same time, the constant additional maneuvering of heavy and powerful equipment leads to excessive soil compaction and repeated excessive consumption of fuel, an increase in processing time  the resulting small shares of land, which ultimately leads to a deterioration in the quality of land cultivation, and a multiple rise in the cost of all technological operations performed on the ground for the cultivation of all agricultural crops. And for some crops, their production in such torn fields becomes unprofitable or impossible.

6. All world practice clearly indicates that large-scale production is always much more profitable than small-scale farming. Therefore, in all developed countries there is a process of uniting small farmers into medium and large agricultural enterprises.

The issue of selling agricultural land is a utopian idea that threatens to develop into a grandiose scandal of global importance! because Ukraine owns 30-40% of the total biohumus of the planet. In addition, in its depths it contains huge reserves of minerals in a wide range, including almost all elements of the periodic table. That is, Ukrainian land is a resource that has no analogues in the world, the price of which cannot be determined.  It should be noted that all the most developed countries of the world are trying not to sell land at all (Sweden, Finland, Norway, Israel, and in America, land can be sold, but only to the state at a market price).

Ukrainian agricultural producers of large and medium scale today have very good indicators in the production of agricultural products. Their difficult financial situation has developed only in the last 3-4 years. After the revolutionaries of “suitability” sharply increased taxes for agricultural producers, both on the agricultural products themselves, produced by farmers, and on all consumables vital for agricultural production. Only on value added tax for the last 4 years, the government of Ukraine has been stealing from agrarians from 6 to 8 billion dollars annuallyWhen selling products for export, due to the corruption inaction of the Antimonopoly Committee, agrarians and Ukraine lose from 10 to 15 billion dollars. I do not want to list all the extortions from the state, from which Ukrainian agrarians suffer, but I want to note that in the civilized countries of the world there is a diametrically opposite state policy in relation to its agricultural producers, for example: every year the EU budget allocates more than 30% of all funds for direct subsidies to their agricultural producers. In addition, France annually allocates about 450 euros per hectare to each farm, regardless of the results of its economic activities. More than 700 euros are allocated in Germany  per hectare of assistance to German farmers, somewhere in the range of 500-600 dollars, assistance is provided from the state to American agricultural producers. I would like to explain to the citizens of Ukraine that such assistance is not being provided for UAH 60 million. In a year, as it was under Poroshenko, they were divided into three gigantic agricultural holdings, the owners of which were friends of the president and the prime minister. For comparison, some figures must be cited: in 2017, Germany allocated to its agricultural producers only direct subsidies in the amount of 27 billion euros and another 9 billion euros – indirect subsidies. in total, German agricultural producers received 36 billion euros in 2017.  In addition, the European Union allocated additional subsidies to all eurozone countries in the amount of 30 billion euros, which, however, were distributed unevenly among the agrarians of the eurozone countries. The farmers of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and other Eastern European countries received the least (on average, 80 euros per hectare) But the farmers of Germany, France and Italy received an average of 300-400 or more euros per hectare.

The agrarian sector for Ukraine at this point in time is perhaps one of the most powerful and promising levers for bringing the entire economy of the state out of the economic and social crisis that has lasted for 30 years. The solution, paving the way for colossal investments in the country by the standards of Ukraine, is the idea of ​​transferring 11 million hectares of state-owned agricultural land on a long-term lease, they can bring Ukraine not only a net income of at least 3.3 billion dollars annually, but also to attract investments for the development of irrigated agriculture in these areas, which will attract at least 110 billion dollars to the country for these needs. and also, as a prerequisite, the development of animal husbandry with the reconstruction of the cattle population within the limits of 1 million heads per 1 million hectares of land, which will inevitably attract about $ 240 billion to the country over 1-3 years.

I draw your attention to the fact that the funds attracted to the country will be free and well controlled, since this money is the property of private companies from various countries of the world with developed economies, but lacking natural resources to obtain high-quality food products that are vital for them. biological quality, which they will be happy to grow only on Ukrainian lands, where there are unique natural and climatic conditions, and not only the land itself, as some naive citizens of Ukraine naively perceive it.

One indisputable conclusion follows from the above: the Ukrainian land is priceless, and therefore it should be kept in the ownership of the state and the entire Ukrainian people to protect its fundamental interests!

Academician, First Vice-President of the Academy of Economic Sciences of Ukraine A. Peshko 

 

 

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