Small agricultural enterprises may get simplified reservation of employees - ministry

The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food plans to expand booking opportunities for employees of small agricultural enterprises as early as this autumn. The current threshold of 1000 hectares of land, which allows applying to the ministry for booking, is planned to be reduced several times - to a few hundred hectares.

This was stated by Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotskyi in an interview with hromadske.

According to him, after the restoration of the separate Ministry of Agrarian Policy, the ministry plans to pay special attention to small enterprises, for which the mobilization of key employees can actually stop the farm's operation.

"Currently, enterprises from one thousand hectares can apply to the ministry for booking. We believe that this threshold should be significantly lowered, so that from having a few hundred hectares it would already be possible to apply, i.e., reduce it several times," - said Vysotskyi.

The exact new threshold has not yet been determined. The ministry must calculate it in such a way that the system covers as much of the agricultural sector's production base as possible.

The new approach is planned to be launched as early as autumn. According to the minister, the goal is to enable a larger number of farmers to submit documents for booking and continue working during mobilization.

Currently, more than 4.5 thousand agricultural enterprises have received critical status through the relevant ministry. Up to 2 thousand more enterprises received this status through regional military administrations. In total, this concerns over 6 thousand agricultural enterprises.

According to Vysotskyi's estimate, enterprises that already have corresponding booking opportunities cultivate over 80% of the country's agricultural land. At the same time, the remaining 20% falls mainly on a significantly larger number of small farms.

The Ministry of Agrarian Policy believes that the system should be expanded further. The minister named a target of covering about 95% of agricultural land.

At the same time, the ministry does not plan to separately increase booking quotas only for the sowing or harvest season. Vysotskyi explained that the current automated booking system through "Diia" does not provide for the possibility of promptly introducing temporary seasonal quotas.

Based on materials: hromadske