Water along the Food Chain: Ukraine

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), through its Investment Centre (IC) Division, is assisting the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in its goal to improve the impact of future EBRD agribusiness investments regarding water efficiency. To this end, in 2013, a joint FAO/EBRD project entitled “Water along the food chain” was initiated in four pilot countries – Ukraine, Turkey, Jordan and Kyrgyz Republic. The specific objectives of this project are four-fold: (i) conduct selected analyses of water efficiency along the food chain to inform EBRD’s agribusiness investment decisions; (ii) identify potential agribusiness clients for the bank and areas for further policy dialogue to improve water efficiency; (iii) improve agricultural water-use policy-making processes at the country level in the four abovementioned pilot countries through the involvement of private sector players; and (iv) coordinate the bank’s future interventions regarding water efficiency along the food value chain with those of other international financial institutions (IFIs) operating in the transition region. The main objective of this report is to indicate ways for Ukraine to move towards more water efficient and productive solutions.