Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced a Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food in Ukraine to enhance coordination on agriculture.
The agriculture community will not stand for Russia’s use of food as a weapon and a tool of war. Many countries throughout the world rely on Ukraine for their staple foods. As a result, Russian presence in Ukraine will threaten new countries including Africa and the Middle East as well.
The United States Secretary of Agriculture met with Ukrainian Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food last week to express the USDA’s commitment to helping rebuild Ukraine’s agricultural sector. This agreement will amplify the strategic partnership between our two nations, and will allow us to better fight global food insecurity together.
The MOU will establish a three-year partnership, established because of the ongoing economic disruptions in the United States and worldwide. This is being done through an all-of-government approach by the USDA as it deals with this disruption due to the Russian war on Ukraine.
The Agriculture Department will collaborate with Ukraine on the exchange of information, such as crop production, emerging technologies and climate-smart practices, to help boost productivity. The USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service will also mobilize its resources to provide Ukraine technical assistance for animal health, biosecurity and sanitary and phytosanitary controls through the Borlaug Fellowship Program and re-establishing the Cochran Fellowship Program to enhance U.S.–Ukraine collaboration and research as Ukraine rebuilds its agricultural sector.
