Where will the conference take place?

The conference will be held in Poznań, POL.

What is the primary focus of the conference?

The conference will focus on current challenges for agricultural activity, including the war in UKR, innovation, and climate change, from legal, economic, and financial perspectives.

Which countries are central to the conference's discussions?

The conference centers on the perspectives of POL and UKR regarding agricultural challenges.

Polish–Ukrainian conference: Current challenges for agricultural activity, including the war in Ukraine, innovation, climate change – legal, economic and financial aspects

Name: Polish–Ukrainian conference: Current challenges for agricultural activity, including the war in Ukraine, innovation, climate change – legal, economic and financial aspects
Start: 2026-04-20T00:00:00Z
End: 2026-04-20T00:00:00Z
Location: Poznań

Apr 20, 2026Poznań, PolandIn-person

Registration open

The Polish-Ukrainian conference in Poznań, Poland will address the multifaceted challenges confronting agricultural activity, with a particular focus on the impacts of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The event will delve into legal, economic, and financial aspects, exploring how innovation and climate change interact with these factors to shape the future of agriculture in the region. This gathering provides a critical platform for experts from both nations to collaborate on solutions and strategies for resilience.

Committees & topics

Topics
Agricultural Activity in Poland and Ukraine · The War in Ukraine and Its Agricultural Dimension · Innovation in the Agri-Food Sector · Climate Change and European Agriculture · Legal Aspects of Agricultural Policy · Economic Aspects of Agricultural Activity · Financial Aspects of Agricultural Activity

Why it matters

The agricultural sector in both POL and UKR faces significant pressures, exacerbated by geopolitical events and environmental shifts. The conflict in UKR has profoundly disrupted supply chains, production capacities, and market dynamics, creating urgent needs for adaptation and recovery. Simultaneously, the broader implications of climate change, including altered weather patterns and resource scarcity, demand innovative approaches to ensure food security and sustainable practices.

This conference is vital because it brings together key stakeholders to analyze these complex interdependencies. By examining the legal frameworks, economic implications, and financial mechanisms, participants can identify actionable strategies to mitigate risks and foster agricultural stability. The discussions are expected to contribute to a deeper understanding of how international cooperation and policy adjustments can support the agricultural communities grappling with these concurrent crises.

How to prepare

Participants preparing for this conference should focus on the intersection of geopolitical conflict, climate change, and agricultural policy. A thorough understanding of the current state of agricultural production and trade relations between POL and UKR is essential. Research into the specific legal and economic challenges faced by farmers and agricultural businesses in both countries will be beneficial.

Consider how international aid, investment, and trade agreements can be leveraged to support agricultural recovery and development. Analyze the role of innovation in addressing both the immediate impacts of conflict and the long-term effects of climate change on food systems. Familiarity with the Model Diplomat lesson on "Engagement Strategies" could prove useful in understanding how to foster productive dialogue and collaboration among diverse stakeholders, while "What Is Stakeholder Mapping?" can help identify key actors and their interests in the agricultural sector.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 2 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Poland

As a host nation and a key neighbor to the conflict, POL is deeply invested in regional agricultural stability and supporting UKR's recovery.

Role in topic

POL plays a crucial role as a transit hub for Ukrainian agricultural exports and has experienced direct impacts on its own agricultural markets due to the conflict. The country is also a significant agricultural producer within Europe and is actively seeking sustainable solutions to climate change challenges. POL's perspective will likely emphasize regional cooperation, trade facilitation, and the integration of Ukrainian agricultural practices into broader European standards.

Ukraine

UKR is directly affected by the conflict, facing severe disruptions to its agricultural production, infrastructure, and export capabilities.

Role in topic

UKR is a major global agricultural producer, and the ongoing conflict has devastated its agricultural sector, impacting food security worldwide. The country's perspective will focus on immediate recovery needs, reconstruction efforts, and strategies to rebuild its agricultural capacity while adapting to new logistical and market realities. Discussions will likely highlight the need for international support, investment in resilient farming practices, and legal frameworks to protect agricultural land and resources during wartime and in post-conflict scenarios.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Agricultural Activity in Poland and Ukraine

Agriculture is a structurally significant sector for both Poland and Ukraine, anchoring rural employment, food security, and export earnings. Poland, an EU member since 2004, operates under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which conditions direct payments, rural development funding, and market interventions on EU-wide standards covering food safety, animal welfare, and environmental protection. Ukraine, historically described as Europe's breadbasket because of its chernozem soils, has built a large grain and oilseed export complex dominated by agroholdings and smallholders, supplying global markets through Black Sea ports. The two systems have grown more entangled since 2022, when Russia's full-scale invasion disrupted Black Sea logistics and the EU opened Solidarity Lanes and temporary trade liberalization for Ukrainian agri-food products. The resulting flows of Ukrainian grain, sugar, poultry, and oilseeds into and through Central Europe triggered repeated farmer protests in Poland and unilateral import restrictions in 2023, which the European Commission and Kyiv have tried to manage through bilateral licensing and safeguard mechanisms. Ukraine's EU accession process, opened in 2022 and progressing through screening since 2024, has placed long-term questions about CAP reform, market access, and competition with Polish producers at the center of the bilateral agenda.

Key players

The War in Ukraine and Its Agricultural Dimension

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched on 24 February 2022, escalated a conflict that began in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea and the proxy war in Donbas. The invasion has produced Europe's largest land war since 1945, mass civilian displacement, the destruction of energy and port infrastructure, and the contamination of vast tracts of farmland with mines and unexploded ordnance. According to UN and FAO assessments, Ukraine has lost control or productive use of significant portions of its arable land, while attacks on Odesa-region ports and Danube terminals have repeatedly disrupted grain exports. The July 2022 Black Sea Grain Initiative, brokered by the UN and Türkiye, temporarily restored seaborne shipments until Russia withdrew in July 2023. Ukraine then established a unilateral maritime corridor and expanded land and Danube routes through the EU's Solidarity Lanes, with Poland serving as the principal transit country. The war's agricultural fallout — price volatility, demining costs, labor shortages, and rerouted trade — remains a central concern for both Warsaw and Kyiv, and shapes EU policy on sanctions, reconstruction financing, and the future integration of Ukrainian agriculture into the single market.

Key players

Innovation in the Agri-Food Sector

Innovation in agriculture has accelerated under pressure from labor shortages, climate volatility, input price shocks, and tightening environmental rules. Precision agriculture, satellite-based monitoring (including Copernicus services), variable-rate application of fertilizers and pesticides, autonomous machinery, and farm management software have moved from pilot projects toward mainstream adoption in EU member states. Biotechnology debates have shifted as well: in 2023 the European Commission proposed a new regulatory regime for plants produced by certain new genomic techniques (NGTs), distinguishing them from older GMO rules and reopening a contested policy file. Poland's agricultural research institutes and a growing agritech start-up scene have engaged with EU Horizon Europe funding and CAP innovation partnerships, while Ukraine — despite the war — has continued to digitalize land registries, deploy drone-based crop monitoring, and attract investment in storage and processing. Bridging the two innovation ecosystems faces challenges around intellectual property protection, data governance, interoperability of standards, and access to capital, but is increasingly framed as essential both to wartime resilience and to post-war reconstruction.

Key players

Climate Change and European Agriculture

Agriculture is both a victim and a contributor to climate change: the sector accounts for roughly 10–12% of EU greenhouse gas emissions and faces mounting losses from droughts, heatwaves, floods, and shifting pest ranges. Central and Eastern Europe, including Poland and Ukraine, have experienced repeated drought years since 2015, with measurable impacts on cereal yields, livestock feed costs, and water availability in the Vistula and Dnipro basins. The 2015 Paris Agreement and subsequent EU climate legislation — the European Climate Law, the 'Fit for 55' package, and the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategies under the European Green Deal — have set binding emission-reduction and land-use targets that directly affect farming. Implementation has proven politically difficult. The 2024 wave of EU farmer protests prompted the Commission to roll back several Green Deal requirements, including elements of the Sustainable Use Regulation on pesticides and certain CAP conditionality rules. Ukraine, as a candidate state, is gradually aligning with EU climate acquis while simultaneously confronting war-driven environmental damage, including soil contamination, forest fires, and destroyed irrigation systems following the 2023 Kakhovka dam breach. Reconciling climate ambition with farm-sector viability is now a defining policy tension for both countries.

Key players

Legal Aspects of Agricultural Policy

The legal architecture governing Polish and Ukrainian agriculture sits at the intersection of EU law, WTO disciplines, and domestic statutes. For Poland, the CAP regulations (notably Regulation (EU) 2021/2115 establishing the 2023–2027 CAP Strategic Plans), the EU food law framework under Regulation 178/2002, plant protection rules, and state aid law structure nearly every aspect of farm policy. Land ownership, cooperative law, and rural inheritance remain matters of national competence, generating recurrent disputes over foreign acquisition of agricultural land. Ukraine's legal framework has undergone rapid change: the moratorium on agricultural land sales was lifted in stages from 2021, opening a regulated land market for the first time since independence. Since 2022, Ukraine has accelerated harmonization with the EU acquis under its Association Agreement and candidate-country obligations, including food safety, animal health, geographical indications, and competition rules. Cross-cutting legal questions now include the design of safeguard clauses for sensitive products, dispute settlement under the EU-Ukraine DCFTA, liability for war-related environmental damage, and the legal status of frozen Russian assets potentially earmarked for agricultural reconstruction.

Key players

Economic Aspects of Agricultural Activity

The economic context for Polish and Ukrainian agriculture has been defined since 2020 by a sequence of shocks: the COVID-19 disruption, the 2021–2022 energy and fertilizer price spike, the invasion of Ukraine and resulting grain-market dislocation, and persistent inflation in input costs. Poland's farm sector — roughly 1.3 million holdings, the largest by number in the EU — depends heavily on CAP direct payments for income stability and has seen rising concentration alongside a persistent smallholder base. Ukraine's agri-food complex generated more than 40% of merchandise export earnings before the war and remains macro-critical even with reduced volumes. The central economic disputes today concern competition between Ukrainian and EU producers under the autonomous trade measures regime, the future of CAP budgets if Ukraine accedes (Commission and think-tank analyses suggest substantial reallocations would be required), the cost-pass-through of climate and animal welfare rules, and the productivity gap between large-scale agroholdings and family farms. Currency volatility, war-risk insurance for Black Sea shipping, and the cost of demining farmland further complicate investment decisions.

Key players

Financial Aspects of Agricultural Activity

Financing agriculture in both countries combines public support, commercial credit, and increasingly climate- and ESG-linked instruments. In Poland, CAP Pillar I direct payments and Pillar II rural development funds — co-financed from the EU budget and the national exchequer — remain the backbone of farm finance, complemented by lending from cooperative banks, BGK guarantee schemes, and EIB-backed credit lines. Risk management tools such as subsidized crop insurance and disaster compensation have expanded after successive drought and flood years. Ukraine's wartime agricultural finance has relied on emergency liquidity from the National Bank of Ukraine, partial credit guarantees, donor-backed programs from the EBRD, IFC, and World Bank, and bilateral support from the EU, United States, and Japan. The EU's Ukraine Facility (2024–2027) and G7 commitments channel reconstruction funds, while discussions continue on using proceeds from immobilized Russian sovereign assets. Looking forward, green finance, parametric insurance for climate risks, and blended finance for demining and irrigation rehabilitation are emerging priorities, even as high interest rates and war-risk premia constrain private investment.

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for Polish–Ukrainian conference: Current challenges for agricultural activity, including the war in Ukraine, innovation, climate change – legal, economic and financial aspects.

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By committee

Frequently asked questions

Polish–Ukrainian conference: Current challenges for agricultural activity, including the war in Ukraine, innovation, climate change – legal, economic and financial aspects

Apr 20, 2026Poznań, PolandIn-person

Registration open

Committees & topics

Topics
Agricultural Activity in Poland and Ukraine · The War in Ukraine and Its Agricultural Dimension · Innovation in the Agri-Food Sector · Climate Change and European Agriculture · Legal Aspects of Agricultural Policy · Economic Aspects of Agricultural Activity · Financial Aspects of Agricultural Activity

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 2 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Poland

As a host nation and a key neighbor to the conflict, POL is deeply invested in regional agricultural stability and supporting UKR's recovery.

Role in topic

Ukraine

UKR is directly affected by the conflict, facing severe disruptions to its agricultural production, infrastructure, and export capabilities.

Role in topic

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Agricultural Activity in Poland and Ukraine

Key players

The War in Ukraine and Its Agricultural Dimension

Key players

Innovation in the Agri-Food Sector

Key players

Climate Change and European Agriculture

Key players

Legal Aspects of Agricultural Policy

Key players

Economic Aspects of Agricultural Activity

Key players

Financial Aspects of Agricultural Activity

Key players

Resources

Recent reporting to ground your prep

US Job Openings at 6.7M

Trump's Economic Reset

Trump's Economic Approval Hits 30% Amid Iran

GOP Promotes Trump's Tax Savings on Deadline

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Dynamic Analysis

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

Conflict Resolution

The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

By committee

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

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Frequently asked questions

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

Related conferences

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Frequently asked questions