WillAgri
Ukraine is one of the world’s top grain producers. The Eastern European country earned the nickname “Europe’s breadbasket.” Just how extensive Ukraine’s farmland is has only recently come to light, thanks to new ways of gathering and crunching satellite-derived earth surface data. A recent study from satellite agriculture service EOS Crop Monitoring revealed that Ukraine is home to 10.6 million acres (4.3 million hectares) of “shadow” farmland, or land that isn’t registered in any government database. The acreage of Ukraine’s unregistered farmland is equivalent to half of the state of Indiana’s landmass, and its output generates an estimated $3.8 billion in untaxed profits. Such findings, gathered as part of the World Bank’s “Supporting Transparent Land Governance in Ukraine” program, in some ways reinforce a pessimistic view of Ukraine as “Europe’s basketcase.” The country already has a reputation for these sorts of oversights, borne of persistent shoddy governance and widespread corruption. But these results, which can be viewed here, also exemplify how technology can be leveraged to change things for the better, boosting land management transparency and offering key information for investors.
Source : AgFunder