Halyna Vdovenko: "The war will end sooner or later, and people will remember who was by their side in times of need"

All civilized countries of the world have agreed that global food security depends on a successful sowing campaign in Ukraine. This is what the Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Qu Dongyu, stated in his speech. And sowing directly depends on how the land relations of agricultural companies are regulated, which today, without exaggeration, are the guarantors of the economic stability of the country and its food security. Therefore, in today’s interview, we will talk about land relations during the war, relations with shareholders, new digital innovations in work and what challenges Astarta’s land service faces every day. We are talking to Halyna Vdovenko, head of the Astarta Land Resources Department.

Galina, do you remember the first days of the war, what they were like for the team

Already on the Friday after the start of the war, our team, having found relatively safe places, returned to work, because such a process as the payment of rent for land cannot be stopped. We received requests for payment through the chatbot of the share holder, which was launched the day before. And, as you understand, all these applications had to be approved, and some of them had to be considered personally.

Employees went to work even on February 24, arguing: “well, what to do – people are waiting for me.” We were simply stunned by such dedication and responsibility.

Yes, of course, we did not force employees to go to work in the offices, because the priority is safety, so at first they worked remotely, and later got involved in the Common Help UA humanitarian project.

How did the work of your administration change with the beginning of the war?

In fact, nothing has fundamentally changed in our work since the war. Of course, we encountered certain limitations regarding the ability to analyze map data, such as changing the owners of land plots, analyzing the activity of competitors, etc. After all, we used public registers when we planned to increase the amount of leased land and to develop land management documentation. Although we still have access to the registries we use and used before and during the war – Feudal and Vkursi Pro – the information they provide is updated as of February 24th.

Of course, we have our own visualization of the fields thanks to AgriChain Land, so we did not feel any particular discomfort and impact on work processes.

Field visualization in the IT solution AgriChain Land actually gives a lot to the land service. If we didn’t have it, the company’s activity would really suffer. But now we are all so used to it that we take it for granted, like a smartphone or a computer. We’ve been working with our own field visualization for over four years, so now it’s hard to imagine how we could have lived without it.

How is the renewal of lease agreements now?

The process of renegotiating lease agreements did not stop. But according to the laws of wartime, all contracts that are terminated during martial law without the consent of the owners of all forms of ownership are automatically extended for one year. But despite this, we meet individually with our shareholders and renegotiate contracts for an average of up to seven years at their request.

And did new plots of land appear in cultivation? How did you check the information on them? What does the lease registration procedure look like now?

Yes, they appeared. If we talk about extracts, which are a mandatory condition for concluding lease agreements, then we have access to them through notaries. In addition, the office employs two certified land surveyors, and when inspecting a plot of land, they have information about the current owner of the land and lease restrictions.

Since the beginning of the war, new state and communal property land has appeared in our cultivation. According to the law, we can take it into land use with the permission of the local self-government body for a period of up to one year under martial law. For this, we just need to register it with the Military Administration.

In June of this year, AgriChain Land mobile application was released. Are you ready to share the results of the implementation?

The mobile version of AgriChain Land is simply a break from all patterns and a new experience of how land relations can be organized in a company. At the end of the summer, we made an online presentation of the application to enterprises, and in October we plan to conduct live training with practical tasks for colleagues.

The mobile application is extremely convenient, because all the data necessary for work is always at hand. Even when shareholders call me, I can immediately check all the necessary information so that our conversation is objective and we can solve the issue that worries the person. Yes, I have access to information about the number of contracts and their terms, I can inspect the land immediately during the conversation, check whether it is within the field or not. And this is very convenient, because, as you understand, the laptop is not always at hand, and the mobile application and the web version are in sync, so the data is identical.

You mentioned the share chatbot, tell us more about it.

Extremely useful a tool for a sharecropper. In it, the user can immediately see the amount of rent he has already received, has access to information about the annual rent, etc.

It is convenient that the shareholder can independently order rent when he needs it, because we in the company pay it gradually from January to December and, if the shareholder does not initiate such payments, we make them automatically at the end of each year.

The highlight of the chatbot is that landlords can order the landscaping services provided by our businesses. They can also submit applications for funeral or wedding benefits or generate an income certificate.

Yes, other agricultural holdings of Ukraine also have chatbots, but their functionality is limited to information about payment balances and rent orders. And the Astarta chatbot has both services and the ability to specify your address or update your card account.

How did shareholders perceive the chatbot?

In general, it is positive, but there are also curious cases when people do not really understand the functionality of the chatbot and enter into a dialogue with it, describe their family situation in detail, talk about family ties. And, of course, such dialogues lead to a dead end (ed. – laughs). But we are working to educate our subscribers, and the support team is always in touch to help solve the problem if it arises.

Have they changed the approach to rent to shareholders?

This year, we paid rent in cash to all shareholders until March 8 inclusive and worked without days off. However, over time it became clear that Ukraine faced serious problems with food exports. And we set ourselves the task of maximizing the percentage of the rental fee with grain: corn, wheat, sugar, etc. Although this practice is exceptional for us, because all previous years we have focused as much as possible on paying for rent in cash.

The leader in rent payments is “Khmilnytske” LLC. They gave people a lot of grain and sugar. And as of the middle of the year, the number of payments reached 80%. And this is a very good result.

Of course, such changes do not apply to all payments. At Astart, we have a commission for shareholder appeals that do not relate to the regulations. Therefore, we make payments to temporarily displaced people and people who are in the temporarily occupied territory exclusively in cash.

However, starting in June, we fully resumed paying rent and cash advances.

As of the end of September 2022, we have repaid as much as 85% of the rent. This was also influenced by the fact that, thanks to the chatbot, people could independently manage the payment process, plus we are always in contact with our shareholders, because good relationships with people are an invaluable resource for building trusting and reliable relationships. The war will end sooner or later, and people will remember who was there in times of need.

Tell us about the practice of advance payments in the Company: what approaches to decision-making about payments will be used?

Previously, we did not have restrictions on issuing advances for one or two years ahead. But in the first months of the war, the company installed them. Currently, we have returned this practice, however, decisions on making advance payments are made by specially created commissions at agricultural companies, then these decisions are agreed by the central commission of the Head Office. It is here that the question of giving an advance or not is decided. But now there are not many such appeals.

Are there Russian citizens among the shareholders, and what is the company’s policy regarding payments to this category of lessors?

We have stopped the payment to shareholders who are citizens of Russia and Belarus, because we do not want to be sponsors of the war, even indirectly. Such a ban is also provided for by law.

Were there any land disputes during this period? How were they resolved?

Yes, they were. We had cases of dissatisfaction from the villagers. But this happens when there is a so-called “rebel” in the community. We explained to them that this decision of the state to extend the contracts is due to the provision of food security, so that it is possible to understand exactly what level of harvest the country should count on, and this is possible only if the contracts are registered and the process is controlled. This is important, because our priority is to preserve the land bank and ensure the country’s food security.