OREANDA-NEWS. January 18, 2016. “The matter of ensuring the food security of Ukraine and strengthening of the leadership position in the world is only possible through the use of irrigated lands which are the areas to grow a firm large-scale yield of agricultural products. The Ministry is developing a strategy for restoring and developing the irrigation system to have a clear action plan for the reconstruction of water supplies to agricultural land,” Oleksii Pavlenko, the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, noted in his speech at a meeting on the restoration and development of the irrigation systems on the reclaimed land.

The Ministry under the agreement with the World Bank created the Coordinating Board and 5 working groups with the participation of all stakeholders with the aim of developing the strategy. The draft Conceptual Principles of reforming the land reclamation sphere are to be shaped in February 2016. By March, the document should be submitted for approval by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

“The approved Strategy will form the basis for an agreement on the financing of the operations by the World Bank. We expect that the financing and reconstruction of the irrigation systems will begin in 2016-2017, and by 2020 will be able to resume watering on the area of 500-550 thousand hectares, thus reaching the level of total irrigated area (without the Crimea) at 1 million hectares,” - the Minister reported.

Oleksii Pavlenko stressed that under the expertise the project should attract \\$1.5-2 billion of investment. The restoration of irrigation on the area of 500-550 thousand will hectares would provide for additional agricultural production of \\$15 billion annually.

“We have already implemented a set of measures to restore the irrigated lands and to develop the engineering infrastructure. In particular, we have introduced the long term (no less than 7 years) land lease for the agricultural industry, farming enterprises, and personal farms, and prohibited the privatization of engineering infrastructure of the land reclamation systems and of the land where these facilities are located. We will further follow the course of the restoration of agricultural infrastructure”, Oleksii Pavlenko assured.