In 2025, NIBULON will focus on reducing the cost of humanitarian demining to accelerate the return of agricultural land to use. This was stated by Mykhailo Rizak, Director of Government Relations at NIBULON, during the Ukraine Mine Action Conference 2024 held in Lausanne, Switzerland, on October 17-18.
After two years of active work as a humanitarian demining operator, obtaining five key certificates in this area, forming its own demining equipment fleet, and launching a large-scale initiative to train personnel in non-technical survey skills, the company is aiming to cut costs to reduce the state’s expenses on compensation for demining services for agricultural producers.
To this end, NIBULON plans to pay great attention to the use of the latest technologies. The company is already using SEFOR equipment to track the work of deminers. In the near future, the company plans to further involve AI analysis of aerial imagery to identify landmines and ERW using the Safe Pro Group Inc. tool. This will also reduce costs and speed up the decision-making process by providing a clearer understanding of the situation in potentially contaminated fields and demining processes in general.
Focusing on demining innovations continues the general principle of operation of the exporter and agricultural producer as a grain aqueduct. From the day it was founded, and despite the challenges posed by the war, NIBULON has been building profitable export routes to ensure global food security. As a result, 3,500 Ukrainian farmers have guaranteed export channels for their products, thus ensuring stable income.
“Just like with grain exports, we are striving to build an efficient model of operation that will ensure the lowest cost of mine clearance while maintaining high quality. Over the year, as a mine action operator, we have returned 5,500 hectares or 98% of the land of our Snihurivska branch in Mykolaiv region. The actual beneficiaries in Snihurivka district are 570 landowners who are now able to profit from their land. We thank the German government, BMZ and DEG for co-financing the demining team, the EBRD and IFC for their active position on demining in Ukraine, as well as the state for its openness to the opinions of market participants, which ultimately allowed us to achieve 100% compensation for the clearance of agricultural land at the end of summer. Together, we can scale up this experience,” says Mykhailo.
The Ukraine Mine Action Conference 2024 was a continuation of last year’s International Donors’ Conference on Humanitarian Demining in Ukraine and brought together representatives from 55 countries and international specialized organizations.
