The SAR is an electronic registry, established in August 2022, with the objective of transferring support to small and medium farmers in a transparent yet expeditious way. Farmers can sign up at the SAR website (https://www.dar.gov.ua/) using their electronic signature and provide a minimum of personal information including a bank account to which any resource transfers can be made, irrespectively of their legal status, i.e., registered legal entity, family-owned business (FOP), or individual. The system gathers information for all land parcels to which the farmer has registered rights from the registry of rights and the cadaster and adds information on the farm from several other official registries.<sup>10</sup> Information in SAR can be used by MAPF or any authorized entity to advertise or implement programs in support of the agriculture sector and to interact electronically with potential participants. Farmers can take any actions required digitally rather than by filling paper forms, including uploading scanned documents, photos, or providing authorization for providers of certain services to access specific types of personal information stored on the system.

The SAR simplifies program implementation by providing reliable information from official registries and providing an incentive to ensure the currency of these; simplifying the process of program application by eliminating the need for repeated filling of paper forms; and leveling the playing field and increasing competition in factor markets by creating a basis of potential clients to which service providers or banks can market their services. Use of the SAR to implement an EU-supported producer support grant (PSG) as well as other programs,<sup>11</sup> facilitated rapid sign-up, especially by small and medium scale farms, many of which had been in the informal sector before.

As the survey was launched in the second half of October, we set Oct. 15, 2022, as the cut-off date to construct the sample frame by dropping farms without any registered land or a valid phone number. Table 1 provides comparison of the resulting sample frame with the 2020 all registered farms survey (Form 29) of SSSU by farm size category (<50, 50-120, 120-500 and > 500 ha). Panels A and B of table 1 presents a simple comparison of number of establishments and total area cultivated of the two frames. Panels C and D draw out implications for informality in areas controlled by Ukraine (ACUs) and areas affected by conflict (AACs) by comparing, for each of these, the area cultivated by farms that are included in our and SSSU’s frame or in either of these frames separately to identify the area cultivated informally (i.e., by farms that are neither included in Form 29 nor the SAR).

> 10 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 and the government plans to add information from other registries, including the mortgage registry and the registry of court cases, in the near future.

> 11 The PSG that targeted to farmers who cultivated less than 120 ha provided a cash grant equivalent to US$100 for each hectare of land cultivated during the 2022 agricultural season in non-conflict affected areas. Information from the SAR was first used to establish whether the farmer was below the 120 ha threshold. After subtracting land parcels registered in the farmers’ name located in conflict affected areas, maps with registered parcel boundaries were used to cross-check cultivation status against a crop map elaborated based on remotely sensed imagery to compute the total grant amount. The € 50 mn. available under the program had been fully disbursed by Nov. 2022 and an evaluation that aims to compare differences over time in parcels by successful as compared to unsuccessful PSG applicants is currently underway. Beyond this, several donors are using the system to implement programs such as provision of short-term grain storage, delivery of seeds, fertilizer, or critical capital equipment (generators).

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