Report: Land use changes and investments in selected regions of Ukraine

Authors: Anton Biatov, Oleh Prylutskyi and Mykhailo Amosov

Published: 2020

Source: Ecoaction

How careful are the agricultural companies with the land they use? This study tried to answer this question by conducting a remote assessment of the state of land in areas where businesses have invested in agriculture.

There is an assumption that when choosing crops for planting, agricultural companies in Ukraine are guided solely by forecasts of market prices for crops for the following year, and do not adhere to crop rotations either, thus violating the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers №164 of 11.02.2010. The study sought to investigate if this assumption is correct, given that these practices contradict the concept of sustainable land use and have severely negative impacts on the environment, in particular, soil depletion.

In order to conduct the remote assessment of the state of land use in Ukraine, the researchers used the latest technology to analyse space images through geographic information technology. The purpose of this analysis was to check whether the companies adhere to crop rotations and whether they plough “off-limits” protected areas, including the nature reserve, coastal strips, and slope areas.

Download the full scientific report here.

Read the related article here: How sustainable land use in Ukraine is ignored