Farm families in eastern Ukraine forced into ‘difficult choices’ to survive | Division for Inclusive Social Development (DISD)

The absence of financial, physical, social and human resources has left some 700,000 farm households extremely vulnerable in conflict-torn eastern Ukraine, the results of a United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) household survey revealed today, and also warned of food insecurity among those families due to “skyrocketing” commodity prices.

Painting “a bleak picture” for small-scale farming families in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the FAO survey noted that to cope with the dire circumstances, people are skipping meals, migrating to find work, borrowing to pay for necessities, selling household goods and vehicles, killing their livestock for lack of feed, and even planting less for lack of seed and fertilizer.

“Family farms in the conflict area have shown resilience in the face of very difficult conditions, but this cannot last,” said Farrukh Toirov, FAO emergency response coordinator in Ukraine, stressing that while “difficult choices” may make sense in the short term, “it means we can expect to see consequences.”

The FAO household survey also warned of “skyrocketing” prices for animal feed and agricultural inputs such as seed, fertilizer and tools, among others.

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