Ukraine: Ukraine Faces Hurdles in Restoring Its Farming Legacy

May 27, 2014 | Danny Hakim, The New York Times
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ZIBOLKY, Ukraine — Like many of her neighbors in this old Soviet collective farm, Maria Onysko prefers to be paid in grain instead of cash for the modest plot of land she rents out.“I have two cows and four pigs, many chickens,” said Ms. Onysko, 62. “So we use it for them.”After the breakup of the Soviet Union, farmland in newly independent Ukraine was divided among villagers, acre by acre, creating a patchwork of agricultural endeavors that are often inefficient or unprofitable. Some land is rented to fruit growers, grain operators or large-scale farming businesses. Some locals work small plots on their own. Some acreage sits fallow, stuck in legal limbo after the owner has died.