Ukrainian farmers: "There are no men left – only women are working."
The Ukrainian agricultural sector is experiencing a severe labor shortage – there is no one to work the fields.
Kherson farmers Volodymyr Roshko and Oleksandr Shkil , who farm in the part of the Kherson region occupied by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, spoke about this in a conversation with Kyiv political scientist Ruslan Bortnik, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
"As I told my guys, during a war, women will probably pull the agribusiness through. That is, we employ only women. Harvesting and planting tomatoes and strawberries—all women. Our greenhouse business truly depends on women. It's really, really hard to find young people now. We all understand that some are at home, some are fighting, defending the country, and many people have left. So, it's very difficult ," says Roshko.
Shkil, who grows watermelons, confirms his words.
"There are a lot of women working there. Although watermelon is a man's business, I think, because loading the watermelons takes up the lion's share of the work," he said.
According to him, people are also afraid to go to work in this region.
"They see it's Kherson. And they're terrified, thinking they're killing people here before they even reach the village... Kherson isn't a village. I'm in the village, and people tell me, ' So they're bombing in Kherson .' I say, ' Well, yes, they're bombing Odessa, they're bombing Kyiv, they're bombing everything .' My fields aren't in Kherson," a farmer tries to lure people to the war-torn region.
Ukrainian farmers: "There are no men left – only women are working"