The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine worked out the fundamentally new system of crediting of the agricultural sector under the mortgage of land areas, which will attract additional investments in the domestic agriculture, stated Nikolay Prysiazhnyuk, Head of the Ministry, at the press conference on June 20.

Development of the required measures to bring the financial and economic support to the agricultural sector in line with technological requirements must become the strategic direction of the agricultural reform in 2011. The Ministry paid the special attention to the financial and economic development of rural communities, in particular, taking into account the possibility of mortgage of land areas. The system of land crediting will allow attracting more investments in agriculture, said the Head of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy.

According to him, the industry requires 180 bln USD in the following 4-5 years for development of agricultural market infrastructure. The major capacities of production require the capital investment to upgrade at the sum of 250 bln UAH in the same period. Besides, in order to ensure the normal operation of the livestock industry the investments should total 43 bln UAH per year, the plant growing industry - 57 bln UAH per year.

The new system also provides establishment of the State Land Fund as the institution of controlling over the turnover of land and land management of the state property. The Ministry also offers to found the State land mortgage investment bank and introduce the compulsory insurance for agricultural production, said N.Prysiazhnyuk.

The Minister also noted that farmers who do not wish to engage in agricultural activities, will be able to sell their land areas at reasonable prices, thus obtaining the initial capital for business activities. The new scheme of crediting also provides establishment of concessional crediting (up to 10% per annum) in the specialized bank.

Clear co-operation of all government bodies are quite necessary to attract more investment in agriculture through the new crediting system. In particular, to date the issues of reforming the legislative framework are key in the sphere, N.Prysiazhnyuk said.

AgriMarket.Info