Concerning Statistics: 16% of Farmers Encountered Corruption in Land Issues.

In 2024, the level of corruption in land issues faced by micro, small, and medium agricultural enterprises remained at last year's level and stands at 16%.

This was discussed during the presentation of the study "Manifestations of Corruption Among Agro-sector Enterprises in 2024," conducted by the USAID Agriculture and Rural Development Program (AGRO) together with the research agency Info Sapiens, reports Ukrinform.

"Over the past year, 16% of surveyed MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises) in the agricultural sector encountered corruption. However, the share of enterprises falling into such situations is decreasing, and this year remained at the level of last year's data. Meanwhile, in 2022, the figure was 20%," said the head of the Social and Political Research Department of Info Sapiens, Anastasia Shurenkova.

The study showed that MSMEs in the fields of meat and dairy production (25%), fruit and vegetable (13%), and grains, legumes, and oilseeds (15%) most often faced corruption in land relations.

By business size, corruption in land issues over a year increased to 30% in small and medium, whereas in micro businesses, it decreased to 14%.

More than half of the respondents (55%) believe that corruption in land relations is comprehensive or quite widespread. According to the study, the most common type of corruption over the past year, mentioned by 49% of MSMEs, is the creation of artificial problems and the delay of procedures in Time.

In particular, among all land-related procedures this year, respondents most often faced the need to obtain a cadastre extract on a land plot (38%).

During appeals, the most common corruption problem arose in issues of leasing state or municipal land plots (38%) and privatizing a land plot (35%).

Respondents consider rural, township, city councils, and OTG councils to be the most corrupt in the land sphere, while the State Geocadastre and its local units rank second.

Shurenkova reported that this year only 9% of those enterprises that encountered manifestations of corruption reported it, which is lower than last year's figure (15%). The most common reasons are confidence that the report makes no difference, distrust of the authorities, and confidence in their inaction, which is currently the biggest challenge for the state.