information specific data from which can, with data owners’ consent, be accessed by accredited private parties for their own purposes.<sup>10</sup> This makes it easier for banks to evaluate credit applications or for advisory service providers to tailor crop management advice to the specific conditions prevailing on a farmer’s fields, leveling the playing field between large and small farms and encouraging farmers to fix discrepancies between reality and formal records.<sup>11</sup> Supported by a call center to assist with application processing, more than 86,000 producers had signed up to SAR by end 2022 with a total of 150,000 farmers registered by June 2024. This is much larger than the total of some 40,000 agricultural producers in the sample frame used by the national statistics office. The ability to quickly and unbureaucratically communicate with farmers made SAR the instrument of choice for implementing a broad array of programs to increase the agriculture sector’s resilience, e.g., via in-kind provision of seeds, fertilizer, generators, or plastic tubes for on-field grain storage, often by specific donors.

The EU-supported Producer Support Grant (PSG) program, the largest program implemented on SAR thus far, transferred a total € 50 million as an unconditional cash grant to small producers, defined as cultivating more than 1 and less than 120 ha or owning between 3 and 100 cows, via a land- or a livestock sub-program on a first-come first served basis.<sup>12</sup> The land program, which is the focus of our analysis,<sup>13</sup> paid farmers UAH 3,100 (about US$ 86) for each hectare of land that was (i) formally registered in the applicant’s name; (ii) located outside of conflict affected areas; and (iii) declared to have been cultivated in 2022. It aimed at providing working capital support to prevent decapitalization or liquidation of small and medium farms in response to the hardship inflicted by the war. Implementation was swift: applications for the full amount of grants available had been received by November 15, 2022, leading to closure of the application process about two months after the program had been launched and disbursement of money to beneficiaries once administrative formalities had been completed 6-8 weeks after applications had been closed.

including (i) a land parcel identification system (LPIS) is used to identify all agricultural land parcels; (ii) a geo-spatial application (GSA) that allows beneficiaries to visually indicate the areas for which they apply for aid; (iii) the area monitoring system (AMS) that is used to observe, track and assess agricultural activities using remotely sensed data; and (iv) a system to identify beneficiaries.

> 10 Farmers can carry out the required actions digitally rather than by filling paper forms, including uploading scanned documents and photos or providing authorization for providers of certain services to access specific types of personal information stored on the system.

> 11 For example, the SAR automatically gathers information on any outstanding debts to the state (which would legally disqualify them from receiving state support) and on farmers’ registered livestock from the animal registry. The government plans to add information from other registries, including the registry of court cases, in the near future. Development of SAR has been supported by the World Bank and the EU.

> 12 Funds were transferred from the EU to the state budget and implemented as a standard state support program with responsibility for administration and cross-checking delegated to the farmer support fund of Ukraine. To support sign-up and applications, a call center was established and, between Aug. 12 when the SAR was launched and Dec. 31, 2022, received 26,197 calls. The SAR has also been used to manage distribution of short-term grain storage by FAO, for distribution of various type of emergency support, and for follow-up programs to support recovery. The latter include US$ 50 million out of a US$ 320 million grant combined with a US$ 230 million loan under the World Bank’s ARISE project. SAR is also planned to be used as the platform for farmers to apply for partial credit guarantees to be provided by an independent agency that is jointly capitalized with recourses from the World Bank and the EU.

> 13 The ‘cow program’ would provide UAH 3,600 (equivalent to US$ 120 at the time of program formulation) for each head of cattle registered in the farmers’ name in the government’s Animal Registry and confirmed to be still alive. While the government had concerns that fear of becoming visible to the state for taxes would prevent individuals and FOPs from registering in SAR, sign-up data show that those fears were largely unfounded.

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