Digitalization of Ukrainian agriculture: opportunities for cooperation

The industry that keeps the economy going

The scale of the agricultural sector for Ukraine is difficult to overestimate. With 59% of Ukraine’s export it provides 37,2% of country hard currency revenue.

At such a scale, even a small increase in efficiency gives a noticeable macro effect. We calculated that increasing the productivity of the agricultural sector by just 10% through digitalization can add about 0.9% of GDP to the country's economy — over $2 billion. And this effect is not limited to the sector itself: the growth of agricultural production generates additional demand for IT services, financial products, logistics and processing infrastructure, forming a cumulative effect on related sectors of the economy in the range of 5–15%.

However, according to the same study, the level of digital maturity of the agricultural sector of Ukraine today is estimated at only 25–35% — and this includes leading companies. The most obvious progress is at the planning stage: digitalization of this stage can increase yields by 10–15% and reduce resource losses by up to 15%, since it is precisely miscalculations at the planning stage — untimely purchases of seed material, forecasting errors — that are the most expensive for the industry.

Large farms are already actively using autopilots on equipment and telematic monitoring systems. According to the Ukrainian AgriTech Industry Navigator catalog, among the most innovative Ukrainian agricultural enterprises as of August 2024:

• 80% use autopilot;
• 70% — monitoring of fuel levels and refueling;
• 70% — tracking the location and status of equipment;
• 60% — navigation lines and field guides;
• 59% — application of plant protection products by drones;
• 56% — satellite images for monitoring.

Medium-sized farms use digital tools less systematically and fragmentarily.

The least digitized stage, regardless of the size of the farm, remains sales and marketing of products: verification of the origin of the product, compliance with organic certification requirements, and similar processes. And it is significant that even in developed economies like the USA, the level of fully integrated digitalization of the agricultural sector does not exceed 70% - that is, the window for development is open not only for us.

Drones as a Ukrainian specialization

One of the areas in which our companies are already globally competitive is agricultural drones. According to our estimates, in 2022, Ukrainian manufacturers occupied 40% of the sprayer drone market in Europe.

In 2021–2023, agricultural drones allowed:

• to cultivate 3.1 million hectares of land;
• to reduce fuel use by 17.1 million liters;
• to reduce water consumption by 620 thousand tons;
• at the same time, to increase the harvested crop by 487 thousand tons.

The full-scale invasion accelerated the digitalization and automation of Ukrainian farmers due to necessity: labor shortage, the need to be resilient, the lack of alternatives. According to our internal research, industries with a higher level of technology adoption during the years of full-scale war grew by 19 points compared to less digitalized sectors.

At the same time, funding remains the main restraining factor. Private venture investments in Ukrainian agritech remain low even within the country. According to Navigator, since 2020, only 8 venture deals have been recorded on the market for a total disclosed amount of $3.3 million — less than 0.1% of all deals in the economy by value. The main source of funding for the industry has been grants from the Ukrainian Startup Fund — mostly in the range of $25–50 thousand: a total of 8 grants worth $350 thousand since 2020.

Therefore, most agritech startups today focus on grants, donor programs and accelerators as practically the only realistic way to grow.

So, about a year and a half or two years ago, within the IT Ukraine Association, we created an AgriTech committee that united agriholdings, agritech startups and technology companies. One of the first results of our work was the Ukrainian AgriTech Industry Navigator study, within which we analyzed more than 150 Ukrainian companies.

With support from the US government through the AGRO Program (implemented by Chemonics), we also conducted an AgriTech accelerator that combined training and consulting — the US market, regulatory requirements, investment environment — with a practical program: 10 days of intensive training in the US with work on business models, branding, pitches and meetings with investors, as well as further mentoring support from June to October with faculty from the University of California, Berkeley. We selected 16 technology companies and startups for the program, whose goal is to enter the US market and scale solutions globally.

Looking ahead

My forecast is cautious but confident: not in ten years, but by 2030, with a caveat regarding the course of a full-scale war, Ukraine has realistic chance of becoming one of the European leaders in the field of AI solutions for the agricultural sector and precision agriculture. To do this, we have a unique combination of a powerful agricultural sector, a strong IT industry, and already accumulated experience in creating autonomous systems and drones.

I see an additional advantage in the regulatory window of opportunity: while the European Union is working with a rather strict AI Act, which it is currently reviewing due to the complexity of its application, Ukraine is only moving towards the relevant legislation - and therefore has room for testing solutions and can later share this experience with the EU, including in matters of regulation itself.

We objectively have all the prospects and conditions to do this. All that remains is to put it into practice.

Maria Shevchuk, Executive Director of the IT Ukraine Association for AgroPortal.ua 

Source: Агротех стає новою точкою росту української економіки — AgroPortal.ua

The photos to this post are from the video  shared by the Office of the President of Ukraine "Independence day 2026"День Незалежності України