Reservation from mobilization for a year and automatic extension of deferments: new rules for the agricultural sector

Recently, the government has revamped its approaches to reservation from mobilization. From now on, 100% of those employed in the defense industry and in the energy industry will be exempted from the draft. Employees of enterprises engaged in the construction of fortifications also receive a deferment. Now it is the turn of the main export industry – agriculture.

Taras Vysotskyi, the head of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, announced that from now on, farmers and agricultural enterprises will be able to reserve workers from the draft for a period of up to 12 months (previously it was allowed for 6 months). The Acting Minister said this during the Black Sea Security Forum conference.

“For the safe operation of farmers, we have made several decisions regarding mobilization. The first is to automatically extend the current reservations for three months, without the need to submit any package of documents. The second is that further reservations will be provided for 12 months. The third is for certain professions (for example, tractor drivers, agronomists, veterinarian) it is possible to reserve the number of workers that is critically needed, while receiving approval from the military.” – said Vysotsky.

In general, farmers will be able to reserve up to 50% of the total number of workers subject to mobilization. Representatives of the industry complain that they feel a shortage of personnel due to the draft. In particular, last year in the Odesa region, the OVA contributed to the increase in the number of reserved farmers, as the situation in the sector was critical.

Another problem of the largest export industry is contamination of fields with explosive objects. Even though the state compensates farmers for 80% of the cost of demining, many producers do not have enough funds to demine agricultural lands.