Ukraine has become the first country in the world to launch a pilot market for the demining of agricultural land through the "Prozorro" auctions. Partners have shown interest in this initiative, and the next step is to attract them for funding to expand this market and replace budget financing, reported Deputy Minister of Economy Igor Bezkaravainy.
"Currently, this is of interest to partners because they can see concretely that these resources have been utilized through the 'Prozorro' system and all went to the fields. We know the specific results of using this money," – he stated in an interview with the Interfax-Ukraine agency during the second annual Ukraine Mine Action Conference (UMAC-2024), held in Lausanne on October 17-18.
Bezkaravainy clarified that it is still too early to discuss specific results from negotiations with partners regarding funding, as the program has only been operational for a month and a half.
"Before this, we rewrote it three times because it’s a startup we attempted that didn’t take off. And now it’s just beginning to gain traction: we’ve conducted the first 20 tenders… So we are starting to show this algorithm to partners already, and they are interested. Previously, we had nothing to showcase or explain how we wanted to implement it, making it impossible to attract funding," – explained the deputy minister.
According to him, the state budget for 2025 allocates 1 billion UAH for the compensation program for demining agricultural land, compared to 3 billion UAH in the 2024 state budget.
"It is extremely important for us to maintain the program because the tool has been effective, and we need to further develop it. However, the task remains to fund this tool not only with taxpayer money but also with partners' contributions," – emphasized Bezkaravainy.
He noted that the development of the program will be supported by the project announced at the conference in Lausanne, which aims to determine priorities for humanitarian demining with the involvement of Palantir and funding from Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
He mentioned that currently, the selection of plots for participation in the compensation program is happening in a queue format, with 160 applications submitted by farmers. As each application is verified by the State Tax Service and the Ministry of Defense for contamination—there are four verification criteria—it becomes "green," is prepared, and put up for auction.
"But when there are not 150 applications but 150,000, that will create opportunities for abuse. Before we reach that stage, we need to build a system that will indicate what needs to be demined first, as it has the greatest impact on the economy, ecology, and social aspects. When we have fewer resources than applications, we cannot manage without such a system," – pointed out Bezkaravainy.
He also confirmed the interest of Ukrainian agribusinesses in the new market but noted that they are not yet ready to finance demining services themselves.
"For now, everyone is observing because this is genuinely a startup that is taking its first steps. We need to understand how the costs arise," – the deputy minister stated.
He mentioned that there is a long-developed methodology accepted by the Ministry of Economy, and the first auctions have shown that it is quite effective.
Bezkaravainy emphasized that the launch of the demining market is one of his KPIs. "This means there is demand, there is supply, there are many operators in demining activities providing these services, and a large number of farmers utilizing these services," – he explained.
The deputy minister concluded that the market is now effectively launching: there is demand from applicants and supply from operators.
"But currently, 10 operators are competing, while 40 cannot participate because they do not yet have the capacity to apply for a lot of 100 hectares. My task is to ensure that these operators have work. It’s not about giving them money to buy equipment and hire people but providing them with work. We are now thinking about how to attract donor resources so that these operators can accomplish something and get paid for their work," – Bezkaravainy noted.
He added that it is necessary to change the rules of the game and convince partners to fund not only large, well-known operators like HALO Trust but also young Ukrainian companies.
"Therefore, we are negotiating, offering new tools and solutions. Some things are categorically not of interest to our partners, but some are very intriguing," – he pointed out.