The United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has established a $100 million Agriculture Resilience Initiative (AGRI) – Ukraine to bolster Ukrainian agriculture exports and to help alleviate the global food security crisis exacerbated by Putin’s brutal war on Ukraine.
AGRI-Ukraine will target Ukraine’s immediate agricultural export challenges, while also simultaneously supporting the wider needs of Ukraine’s agriculture sector and bolstering Ukraine’s continued production of agricultural commodities through 2023. The Initiative will increase Ukrainian farmers’ access to critical agricultural inputs including seeds, fertilizer, equipment, and pesticides, enhance Ukrainian infrastructure capacity and capability to efficiently export agricultural goods, increase farmers’ access to financing, and expand the capacity of Ukrainian businesses to dry, temporarily store, and process agricultural commodities.
USAID seeks to raise an additional $150 million for the Initiative from fellow donors and the private sector, with an overall target of $250 million. AGRI-Ukraine builds on a range of support USAID is providing to Ukraine’s agriculture sector in the wake of Russia’s full – scale invasion, including providing over 8,000 Ukrainian farmers with seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and more, reaching approximately 14% of the country’s registered agriculture enterprises to help them deliver this year’s harvest despite the devastation caused by Russia’s aggression. This effort will bolster the entire agricultural sector, safeguarding this major economic engine for future generations of Ukrainians.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, USAID has been working closely with humanitarian partners in the country and region to reach Ukrainians with lifesaving humanitarian assistance while also ramping up critical development assistance to respond to cyber attacks and threats to the energy sector, countering disinformation, supporting small businesses and the agriculture sector, documenting human rights violations, meeting essential health needs, and ensuring the continued functioning of local and national government entities.
The United States remains committed to supporting Ukraine and its people in the wake of Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war.
