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News > World

EU Suspends Green Farming Rules to Enhance Food Security

  • View of a wheat field.

    View of a wheat field. | Photo: Twitter/ @NewsHour

Published 23 March 2022
Opinion

The measure is accompanied by a support package worth US$549 million for European producers most affected by the consequences of the Ukranian conflict.

The European Commission is temporarily allowing European Union (EU) farmers to grow crops on four million hectares of fallow land currently designated as "ecological focus areas" to enhance food security as food stocks and storages in Ukraine are being destroyed.

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This "exceptional and temporary derogation" aims at increasing the production of crops for food and feed purposes to mitigate the loss of Ukrainian products on the global market, the European Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis said.

"The EU is an agricultural superpower and we will ensure that our farmers have the Commission's full support to respond to the global needs for food," said Janusz Wojciechowski, the European Commissioner for Agriculture.

The derogation is accompanied by a support package worth US$549 million for European producers most affected by the consequences of Ukrainian conflict; advances of direct payment in October for next year; market safety net measures for the pigmeat market; and temporary flexibilities to existing import requirements on animal feed.

The loss of Ukrainian agricultural products resulting from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict could disrupt food supply for lower-income countries in North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, Dombrovskis explained.

The EU is also set to help Ukrainian farmers as much as possible to ensure a successful sowing season. A short and medium-term food security strategy is being developed by Ukraine with support from the EU to enable Ukraine to feed its citizens and start exporting again.

"Our first priority is to make sure that Ukrainians have enough food, fuel and water. We will also help them to continue planting and growing cereals and oilseeds, much needed for themselves and for the world and facilitate their exports," Wojciechowski said.

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