The serious challenge posed by desertification and lack of proper irrigation systems.

Due to desertification, the lack of investment and poor technologies, 20% of Ukraine’s arable land is degraded and unproductive. Farmers have been forced to get creative as the old and under-maintained irrigation system can’t compensate for the new lack of rainfalls. Only 600,000 hectares of Ukraine’s arable land currently have a functioning irrigation system, compared with 2.6mn hectares in the Soviet period.