(Bloomberg) — Nine months of Russian occupation left more than half of Inna Boiko’s 50,000-hectare farm in southern Ukraine littered with shell craters, burnt-out equipment, and dangerous land mines. When she and hundreds of other farmers returned to their villages in the Mykolayiv region in November 2022, she was determined to clear the fields and plant again.
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But in the early days of the war, Boiko was left to her own devices on how to make that happen, using makeshift drones and other DIY contraptions to remove hazards in what has become the world’s most heavily-mined country. Since then, Ukraine’s government has turbocharged its pitch for international help, attracting a rush of special machinery from Japan and funds from philanthropist Howard Buffett with astonishing results.
“We are now knocking on every door, talking about money, equipment — any possible way to support us,” Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko told reporters in October.
While Ukraine remains a major global crop supplier, its production downturn since the start of the war has tightened stockpiles of corn, wheat and sunflower oil. Russia also recently ramped up attacks on cargo ships in the Black Sea and a drought this year hampered the region’s farmers, adding to supply risks just as world food prices climb.
Safe access to farmland is essential for a country known as Europe’s breadbasket, and demining Ukraine could take decades. At the start of the invasion, more than 174,000 square kilometers of its territory became riddled with explosive mines, an area larger than Greece. But accelerated efforts have made about 20% of the land usable again as of this year — helping to maintain a critical resource for agriculture and jobs.
In Mykolayiv, where Boiko’s farm is located, clearing of just one hectare of land can result in four extra tons of grain, and stripping the whole region of mines would add 3 million tons — equivalent to all of Ukraine’s grain exports in October.
Since the start of Russia’s invasion, Ukraine has lost about a third of the land it previously used to cultivate grains and oilseeds. Regions stretching between Kharkiv in the northeast to Odesa in the southwest were badly damaged and partially occupied in the first year of the war, but were previously among the top sowing areas for grains.
The Howard G. Buffett Foundation joined the initiative on land clearing in 2022 and is one of the biggest donors providing technological solutions, including machinery. An experienced farmer, Buffett — who is Warren Buffett’s son — said he didn’t “invent anything new” and worked with engineers to turn bulldozers and tractors into equipment that can be operated remotely, or with drivers to survey and clear the land.
“A lot of the senior leadership have said it’s the way that we can help farmers and the economy recover,” Buffett said in an interview in Kyiv.
Companies like Deere & Co., Caterpillar Inc., Kinze Manufacturing Inc. and even the Illinois state police bomb squad have also stepped in to help, providing engineering expertise to design and test devices that run ahead of harvesters to absorb explosions. Countries including Canada, Switzerland, Germany and Japan have donated a total of about $1 billion of aid to help demining efforts.
Japan, in fact, is one of Ukraine’s largest providers of non-military financial aid. By the end of this year, a third of all demining machines in Ukraine will be Japanese-made, according to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
Even so, Ukraine still needs more technologies and machines, according to Buffett, with mine contamination posing a problem “for decades.”
The experience of Ukrainian grain producer and trader Nibulon SA shows how challenging it is to stabilize the agricultural economy. The company had to clear about 5,000 hectares of cropland in the Mykolayiv region that was riddled with explosives, an effort that would have cost more than to simply purchase new unaffected land. It opted to develop a demining branch within the company, which also provides services for 3,500 small farmers who sell grain to Nibulon for export.
At the moment, the demining business is loss-making as farmers cannot afford paying for the services, Nibulon’s director for government relations Mykhailo Rizak said. But he believes one day it may become a market or even an export-oriented industry, he said, as new technologies are invented and scaled. Ukraine’s government plans to introduce compensation for demining, a measure which will likely help boost demand for Nibulon’s services, Rizak said.
Boiko, the farmer from the Mykolayiv region, has also been making slow but steady progress. Most of her land is being used for planting again, supplying grains and vegetables to restaurants in Kyiv and elsewhere. But about 10% remains heavily contaminated and can only be cleared with the help of drones and heavy bulldozers.
“This is a long-term problem. This is decades and decades of work,” said Guy Rhodes, who coordinates the initiatives of two United Nations agencies, the World Food Program and the Food and Agricultural Organization, to help farmers and households get back to cultivating their land safely.
“You can’t clear every square meter of the country. It’s just not feasible. You need to prioritize where you put your assets,” he said.
