The Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, Mykola Solsky, spoke about the key food challenges and ways to overcome them during his speech at the opening of International Green Week.
As one of these challenges, the Minister called for the blocking of Ukrainian agricultural exports, both at the beginning of the full-scale Russian war and today, due to artificial inspections of ships in the Bosphorus, which causes turbulence in the food markets. As a result, food prices are rising, and the food crisis is worsening in general.
"Ukraine, together with international partners, made maximum efforts to expand new logistics routes, including the launch of a grain corridor. Thanks to this, we remained the guarantor of the world's food security. But even in such difficult conditions, since the beginning of the war, our state has managed to export more than 40 million tons of grain, oil and processing products to provide food for hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Despite everything, Ukraine has retained its position among the TOP-5 global agricultural exporters," he stressed.
However, according to the Minister, food security is not the only challenge for the modern world. The problems of climate change, which lead to the depletion of resources, the transformation of food systems, energy conservation, and the use of renewable resources, are also relevant.
All this requires appropriate decisions from the international community, emphasized Mykola Solskyi. The Minister named the development of alternative energy sources as one of them. "Just like other European countries, we review the high value of biological resources, evaluate their economic perspective and determine our priorities in the further development of the bioeconomy. Ukraine can also participate actively in the biomethane boom, because 70% of our territory is agricultural land, the largest area in Europe. Our biomethane production potential is up to 10 billion m3/year. It will be enough to ensure domestic demand and export to the EU through existing gas pipelines," the Minister noted.
In addition, he emphasized that today, to accelerate the development of farming and solve problems related to hunger and ecology, net exporter countries with developed agricultural technologies should share their experience with developing countries.
"We have to encourage farmers to a new course of work. Support and stimulate their activities. This is an opportunity to unite and adopt new rules of existence for the world for the sake of the future. Priority #1 is sustainable development. Ukraine is part of the civilized world, and we contribute to solving these global problems. But for this, we need victory and peace. World stability is impossible without peace in Ukraine," summed up Mykola Solsky.
