The State Agrarian Register as a public platform for the modernization of Ukraine’s agricultural development in the 21st century: improvement of the legal framework
Authors: Kulynych P. F. 
Published: January 2025

The article examines the main trends in the formation of the legal basis for the functioning of the State Agrarian Register (hereinafter – DAR) as a public digital platform for the modernization of agrarian development of Ukraine in the 21st century. The legal aspects of the functioning of DAR as a digital platform of state support for agricultural producers and management of the development of the agrarian sphere are being studied. The development of land relations at the current stage of agricultural production is characterized by high dynamics, for the effective management of which there is a need for digitization and management processes of agriculture. The problem of digitalization of agriculture appears as a general problem of agricultural production in Ukraine. The use of digital technologies in public administration allows to significantly increase its effectiveness in the agricultural sector. In Ukraine, an important tool for digitalization of administrative and service agrarian relations is the State Agrarian Register (DAR), which was created at the end of 2020. DAR is a state automated information system for collecting, accounting, accumulating, processing and providing information about producers of agricultural products. The main task of DAR when it was created was to provide state support to those farmers who registered with it. A feature of DAR is that its users receive services without the use of paper documents – based on digital technologies. During the operation of DAR, many updates took place, its functionality and tools were repeatedly expanded. Recently, there has been a need to transform DAR into a larger electronic platform - a kind of national digital agrarian analytical center, which will not only provide service and management functions in the agricultural sector, but also create analytical products regarding the development of agriculture and relevant agrarian legislation. Additional legislative decisions are needed to create the legal basis for the transformation of DAR into a national digital agrarian analytical center. First, we consider it expedient to introduce mandatory registration in DAR (later – the National Digital Agrarian Analytical Center) of agricultural producers of all types who use more than 2 hectares of land for the production of agricultural products (farms, medium-sized agricultural enterprises and agricultural holdings). Secondly, any appeals by agricultural producers to authorities, which are empowered by law to make management decisions, provide public agricultural services, etc., should be made through DAR. Thirdly, the information generated in the DAR must be of an official nature. Accordingly, state authorities and local self-government bodies, which, in order to perform their management and advisory functions in agriculture, should receive such information not from agricultural producers, but from DAR. Fourthly, in accordance with Regulation No. 2116/2021, the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) has been created in the EU, which should function on the basis of electronic databases and geographic information systems and ensure the exchange and integration of data. To ensure effective control and simplify administration in Ukraine, it is also advisable to provide domestic agricultural producers, officials, etc., with access to the relevant European systems through DAR. Fifth, DAR should provide interested authorities with information about specific agricultural producers, their groups, and agricultural information of a higher level of generalization. Therefore, it seems expedient to form and open for wide public access information on the state of the agricultural sector of Ukraine in quarterly and other analytical reviews generated by the DAR software. For this purpose, it is advisable to deepen the degree of digitalization of registers and other databases, which are accessed through DAR, based on the improvement of software for effective information exchange for the purpose of cross-checking, detection and prevention of potential duplication for the needs of monitoring the condition and development of the agricultural sector. Sixth, it is expedient to establish a procedure according to which any laws and by-laws on the functioning of the agricultural sector as a whole, the legal status of agricultural producers and authorities that perform management and service functions in the agricultural sector can be adopted only taking into account the relevant information with DAR. Seventh, DAR should become a platform for the accumulation and dissemination of advanced agricultural technologies and innovations, especially technologies of precision and climate protection agriculture.