(Paris) Canada will provide $40 million in funding to a Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) project aimed at partially compensating for the destruction of grain storage equipment due to of the war in Ukraine, the FAO announced on Tuesday.
Posted at 4:17 p.m.
“The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has just launched a new US$40 million project funded by Canada to address the lack of grain storage capacity in Ukraine. “Said the UN agency in a press release.
This funding should make it possible “to store 2.4 million tonnes of additional cereals between 2022 and 2023, and provides for the contribution of auxiliary technical equipment”, she adds, as the decisive period of crop harvesting begins. winter (cereals, oilseeds).
“According to the Ukrainian government, out of a total storage capacity of 75 million tons, 14% of the equipment is damaged or destroyed, 10% is located in the territories occupied by Russia and 30% is full of 22 million tons from the 2021 harvests awaiting export ”, from the silos of the Black Sea ports in particular, summarizes the FAO.
With this funding, the UN “will provide temporary and permanent solutions for grain storage, including supplying polyethylene grain sleeves, loading and unloading machines and modular long-term storage units” for small and medium-sized farms on a large part of the territory, details in the press release Pierre Vauthier, head of the FAO country office for Ukraine.
This aid is in addition to a previous envelope of 17 million dollars provided at the beginning of July by the Japanese government in order to “ensure the storage of one million tonnes of cereals”.
The FAO’s objective is to compensate for part of the loss of storage capacity linked to the conflict, up to 4.07 million tonnes, i.e. “25% of the national storage deficit estimated at 16 million tonnes in 2022-2023 “.
The international organization, which has so far raised 70.4 million dollars through its aid programs for Ukraine, estimates that “an additional 110 million US dollars are urgently needed to help households in crisis. precariousness in rural areas.