We, the participants of the extended meeting of the Association of Farmers of the Volyn Region, understand the problems that have arisen in the grain market of Ukraine, caused on the one hand by weather conditions, and on the other hand by the preservation of the command-administrative system of agricultural management. \n \nThe analysis of the grain situation in our region shows that once again the peasants are being deceived, forcibly compelled to hand over grain to the so-called "regional resources" at meager prices that absolutely do not correspond to the price established on the market. The actions of government representatives and their orders violate the property rights of citizens, which are guaranteed by the current Constitution of Ukraine. Such actions and measures do not contribute to the establishment of competitive agriculture and push the countryside to the brink of impoverishment. \n \nThe Association of Farmers advocates for the organization of exchange trading on the grain market in the region, for equal opportunities for the sale of grain by small producers and large farms, for targeted subsidies to low-income segments of the population for the purchase of bakery products, for fair compensation of costs for sowing grain crops for the 2004 harvest, regardless of the size of the farm and its organizational and legal form. \n \nWe assert that forced purchase of grain will absolutely not affect the state of the region's economy; on the contrary, personal subsidiary farms will reduce the amount of milk and meat sold, which in turn will negatively affect the formation of local budgets. \n \nWe call on the Government of Ukraine and the regional authorities to return to economic levers of economic management, especially in the countryside. Already today it is necessary to declare intentions regarding the attitude toward the countryside in 2004 and subsequent years, to state stable procurement prices for grain for 3-5 years, to initiate a policy of subsidized stable credits, guaranteeing them to small, and not only large, producers, to activate the work of exchanges, and to immediately begin implementing all provisions of the recently adopted Law of Ukraine "On Personal Peasant Farming." \n \nAdopted at the meeting of the Council of the Association of Farmers of the Volyn Region on August 22, 2003. \n \nHead of the Association \nBohdan Prus