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Restore conflict-damaged farmland in stages: make sure people and equipment can enter safely, investigate contamination and physical damage, then rebuild soil function with locally appropriate practices. Mines and unexploded ordnance, fuel and munition residues, erosion, compaction, salinity, and nutrient loss require different responses. A fertilizer, lime, or compost recommendation made without site data can waste money or create food-safety risks.
The sequence below combines mine-action practice, environmental assessment, soil diagnosis, and sustainable land management. It is a planning guide, not a release certificate: the local mine-action authority, environmental regulator, agricultural extension service, and qualified laboratory must decide whether a particular field can be cultivated and what restrictions apply.
Why conflict-damaged soil needs more than fertilizer
War can reduce agricultural output through several pathways at once. Explosions disturb soil layers, leave craters and rubble, compact ground under vehicles, strip vegetation, accelerate erosion, and alter drainage. Fires and damaged fuel, storage, industrial, or sewage systems can release pollutants into soil and water. Mines and explosive remnants of war can kill or injure people and make otherwise fertile fields inaccessible. Polluted soil can transfer contaminants to crops, livestock, groundwater, or farm workers.
These are separate problems. Nutrient depletion is a fertility question; a buried munition is a life-safety question; a petroleum or metal residue is a contamination question; a compacted plough layer is a physical-soil question. The treatment, evidence, responsible professional, and monitoring requirement differ for each. UNEP’s Global Assessment of Soil Pollution (4 June 2021) links soil pollution with risks to health, food security, and soil degradation, while United Nations guidance on conflict’s environmental effects describes multiple pathways rather than one characteristic “war soil.”
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Do not infer contamination from a crop’s poor growth, unusual color, or a single pH reading. Conversely, apparently productive vegetation does not prove that land is safe or that food is safe to eat.
Step 1: Establish that the field can be entered
Assume an explosive hazard until competent authorities say otherwise
If mines, unexploded bombs, cluster-munition remnants, booby traps, or other explosive remnants may be present, keep people, livestock, tractors, and sampling teams out. Do not touch, move, mark closely, dismantle, or photograph an object from nearby. Do not ask farmers to “check” a field with a metal detector or by digging.
Contact the national mine-action center, civil-defence service, police, or an accredited humanitarian mine-action organization. Give the location, access route, visible signs, former military activity, and any accident information without entering the suspected area. Follow the authority’s exclusion zones, warning-marking rules, and reporting procedure.
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A 22 June 2023 FAO and World Food Programme account of agricultural recovery in Ukraine describes a sequence of identifying and mapping farmland, clearing mines and explosive remnants, and only then testing soil for pollutants. That is a program example, not a universal technical standard, but it illustrates the governing principle: no agronomic intervention is worth exposing people to an explosive device.
Mine action normally involves non-technical survey, technical survey, clearance, quality assurance, and formal handover by authorized organizations. Ask what “released” means in your jurisdiction and retain the handover record. A cleared surface does not automatically answer whether buried pollution, unsafe water, or structural damage remains.
Control secondary access risks
- Restrict entry to trained personnel and a documented route.
- Use a site log with dates, names, locations, weather, and observations.
- Keep children, animals, scavengers, and informal scrap collectors away.
- Stop work after finding suspicious metal, containers, unusual soil staining, dead vegetation in a pattern, or a strong chemical odor; withdraw and report it.
- Use safe water and hygiene arrangements for any authorized team. Do not eat, smoke, or store food while handling potentially contaminated soil.
Step 2: Investigate contamination and physical damage
Build a site history before taking samples
Ask local residents, farmers, emergency services, and authorities about shelling locations, fires, fuel or chemical storage, destroyed factories, wastewater releases, floodwater, burned equipment, and the dates of incidents. Map craters, rubble, ash, stained patches, drainage channels, wells, ponds, streams, and areas where crops or animals died. Divide the field into zones with similar history rather than mixing the whole property into one sample.
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Potential pollutants vary by incident and geology. They may include petroleum compounds, metals, explosive-related chemicals, combustion products, asbestos or other debris-associated materials, and pollutants carried by floodwater. The presence, concentration, mobility, and legal significance of any contaminant must be established locally; a list of possible substances is not a diagnosis.
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UNEP’s environmental-emergency guidance supports structured assessment and sampling of soil and water to identify risks and appropriate follow-up. FAO soil-pollution policy guidance emphasizes establishing background levels, testing potentially contaminated soil, and monitoring over time. Ask an environmental regulator or qualified consultant to design the sampling plan, including depths, locations, number of samples, field blanks or other quality controls, sample preservation, chain of custody, and analytes.
Use a laboratory accredited or otherwise recognized for the relevant methods in your country. Tell the laboratory the intended land use, crops, suspected incident, and whether water, livestock, or food will be exposed. Results should be interpreted against the applicable national or regional standards, background concentrations, and exposure pathways—not against a generic internet table.
Separate fertility screening from contamination clearance
A consumer kit can screen pH and a few nutrients for ordinary agronomic decisions. It cannot detect every conflict-related contaminant, establish a safe-food threshold, or certify a field for cultivation. A laboratory fertility report and an environmental-contaminant report may be separate services with different sampling requirements. Never use a favorable N-P-K or pH result as evidence that a field is contamination-free.
Assess physical and water constraints
Record topsoil depth, compaction, crusting, erosion, sediment deposition, salinity, sodicity, drainage, infiltration, and damaged irrigation or wells. Test irrigation and drinking water where incidents or flooding could have affected them. A field can have adequate nutrients but fail because roots cannot penetrate, water runs off, or salts accumulate.
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Step 3: Diagnose ordinary fertility after access is safe
Define the intended crop rotation, realistic yield goal, and water regime before interpreting a soil report. At minimum, agronomic testing commonly considers pH, electrical conductivity or salinity, organic matter, texture, and plant-available nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and sulfur. Depending on the crop and region, tests may also include calcium, magnesium, micronutrients, cation-exchange capacity, sodicity, bulk density, infiltration, and rooting depth.
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Sample representative zones at the depths specified by local extension guidance. Keep visibly different areas—crater fill, ash, flood sediment, field edges, and undisturbed reference soil—separate. Record GPS coordinates or a clear field map so future samples can be compared with the same locations. A single composite sample can hide a small but hazardous hotspot.
Have an agronomist or extension specialist translate results into an input plan. The correct rate depends on soil test method, crop removal, expected yield, rainfall or irrigation, existing organic matter, and local regulations. Do not apply lime, fertilizer, manure, compost, gypsum, biochar, or a “detoxifying” amendment at a fixed rate without diagnosis. Some amendments can mobilize contaminants, add salts or pathogens, or move pollutants into drainage water.
Step 4: Select restoration measures by the problem they solve
FAO describes land restoration as a continuum: halt ongoing degradation, rehabilitate damaged functions, and adapt management to severity and ecological and social context. The options below are not interchangeable. Select only measures supported by site evidence and local technical advice.
| Problem to address | Evidence needed first | Possible direction | Qualified lead and cautions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Explosive remnants or suspected ordnance | Mine-action survey and formal clearance or release | Keep the area closed; follow the authorized clearance plan | Accredited mine-action actors. Farmers must not investigate or remove devices. |
| Unknown or confirmed chemical contamination | Incident history, risk assessment, targeted soil and water analyses, legal criteria | Containment, removal, treatment, land-use restriction, or monitored recovery as regulators approve | Environmental regulator, qualified consultant, and competent laboratory. Do not dilute or bury contaminated soil. |
| Compaction and poor infiltration | Bulk density, penetration resistance, rooting depth, infiltration, and moisture observations | Reduce traffic, repair drainage, use cover, and apply carefully timed loosening where safe and appropriate | Soil and water specialist. Deep tillage can worsen erosion or spread contamination. |
| Erosion, bare ground, or sediment deposition | Slope, flow paths, soil loss, and sediment chemistry | Permanent cover, contour or water-control measures, residue retention, and stabilized channels | Conservation adviser. Do not spread potentially contaminated sediment onto clean fields. |
| Low organic matter or biological activity | Organic matter, structure, crop history, and manure or compost safety | Safe plant residues, rotations, cover crops, and verified clean organic inputs | Agronomist and, where relevant, a contaminant-testing laboratory. Organic inputs can themselves contain metals, salts, or pathogens. |
| pH, nutrient, salinity, or sodicity constraint | Validated soil test, water test, crop requirement, and local interpretation | Precisely dosed fertilizer or amendment, improved water management, and tolerant crops where appropriate | Local extension service. Rates are site- and crop-specific. |
Step 5: Rebuild soil function with resilient management
Stop further loss first
Keep soil covered with safe vegetation or residue where contamination and weed-control rules permit. Reduce unnecessary passes by heavy machinery, avoid working saturated soil, and repair runoff paths before intense rain causes more erosion. Fence or otherwise exclude livestock from areas awaiting a decision. If a pollutant source is still active, source control takes priority over fertility amendments.
Restore structure and water movement
Compaction is best prevented by controlling axle loads, traffic lanes, and timing. Where testing confirms a physical layer and no contamination-spreading risk, an adviser may recommend shallow or deep loosening under suitable moisture conditions. Cover crops, residue retention, roots of diverse species, and carefully managed organic inputs can improve aggregation and infiltration over time. On slopes, contour-aligned operations, grassed waterways, terraces, or other measures may be appropriate after a conservation assessment.
Rebuild organic matter and biological activity safely
Use crop residues, green manures, rotations, and verified clean compost or manure only when the material’s origin and quality are known. Avoid importing soil, ash, dredged sediment, or demolition compost from an affected area without testing. Organic matter improves water-holding capacity and nutrient cycling, but it does not neutralize every pollutant and can increase movement of some chemicals.
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Match crops and production intensity to remaining risk
Begin with a conservative crop and management plan approved by local authorities when testing shows residual uncertainty. Consider rooting depth, edible plant part, irrigation source, livestock access, and market or food-safety rules. A non-food cover crop may be suitable for erosion control in one setting but unsuitable if it can enter feed chains or spread contamination. Do not sell or feed produce from a restricted field until the responsible authority confirms the applicable requirements.
Use integrated land and water planning
FAO’s current agricultural-land guidance (2026) emphasizes integrated land-use planning, sustainable land and water management, resilient and diversified production systems, and enabling governance. On a conflict-affected farm, that can mean coordinating field boundaries with cleared zones, protecting wells and drainage, diversifying crops and income, restoring vegetation in marginal areas, and agreeing on access rules with neighboring land users. Soil work succeeds when water, infrastructure, tenure, labor, and market constraints are addressed alongside nutrients.
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- Report and map hazards. Notify mine-action and environmental authorities; mark suspected hazards from a safe distance and restrict access.
- Obtain formal access or clearance. Keep the handover or release documentation with the farm records.
- Collect the site history. Map incidents, land uses, water bodies, visible damage, and reference areas.
- Commission an environmental assessment. Use a qualified sampling plan for soil, sediment, and water where pathways justify it.
- Wait for the risk decision. Follow restrictions, remediation orders, crop prohibitions, and worker-protection requirements.
- Run agronomic soil tests. Sample by management zone and depth; include physical and water tests relevant to the crop.
- Set a phased management plan. Prioritize source control, erosion and compaction prevention, safe organic-matter building, and precisely calculated nutrients.
- Start with a monitored area. Keep records of inputs, yields, symptoms, water use, and any new observations before expanding.
- Review results with authorities and advisers. Repeat the tests and monitoring required by the site risk assessment; do not substitute a calendar-based “safe after X years” rule.
Monitoring and the decision to scale up
Monitoring should answer a defined question: Is a pollutant declining, moving with water, entering crops, or remaining localized? Are pH, salinity, organic matter, infiltration, and nutrient levels improving? Are erosion and runoff controlled? Use the same mapped locations, depths, methods, and laboratory quality controls so results are comparable.
There is no universal monitoring duration, crop restriction, contaminant threshold, or “safe to farm” interval for every country and conflict. Regulators may require repeated soil or water tests, crop-tissue analysis, groundwater observation, worker controls, or land-use restrictions. Continue monitoring when a source remains, when floodwater can remobilize material, or when results approach a legal or health-based limit. Scale production only when the competent authority and qualified professionals agree that the evidence supports the intended use.
Ukraine: what the agricultural impact figures do—and do not—show
FAO and WFP reported in 2023 that Ukraine’s grain and oilseed production fell 37 percent in 2022, according to the Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment published in February 2023. They also reported that almost 90 percent of surveyed small-scale crop producers experienced a war-related revenue decrease and that one in four had stopped or significantly reduced agricultural activity. These figures describe agricultural and livelihood disruption in that context; they do not demonstrate a 37 percent loss of soil fertility or apply automatically to other countries.
The same release described a $100 million program with a $90 million funding gap at that time and estimated potential annual savings of up to $60 million in direct food assistance. Those were historical program figures, not current funding information or a price for restoring an individual farm. Denise Brown, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, called making land safe and free of explosive remnants “the first step” to rebuilding rural communities. Pierre Vauthier of FAO Ukraine said soil rehabilitation, remediation, and conservation techniques were expected to support people’s return to farming and sustain agricultural production. The practical lesson is the sequencing: safety and evidence precede production inputs.
Quick Recap
Who should make which decision?
| Decision | Responsible party to contact |
|---|---|
| Whether people or machinery may enter | National mine-action authority, civil defence, or accredited mine-action organization |
| What contaminants to test and how | Environmental regulator, qualified environmental consultant, and competent laboratory |
| Whether soil meets a legal land-use or food-safety criterion | Relevant environmental, agricultural, and public-health authorities |
| Which crop, fertilizer, lime, or conservation practice fits the soil | Local agricultural extension service or agronomist using validated soil and water results |
| Whether monitoring is sufficient to expand production | The authority responsible for the site, supported by the environmental and agronomic professionals |
Common mistakes and safer alternatives
- “The field looks green, so it is safe.” Replace visual judgment with official explosive-hazard clearance and appropriate testing.
- “A home pH kit cleared the soil.” Use it only for basic fertility screening; contamination requires fit-for-purpose laboratory analysis.
- “Spread lime or compost to bind everything.” Wait for a diagnosis. Amendments can change contaminant mobility or introduce new pollutants.
- “Deep-plough the hotspot into the field.” Do not dilute, bury, or redistribute suspected contaminated soil without an approved remediation plan.
- “Test one mixed sample for the whole farm.” Zone sampling is needed where incidents, deposits, or soil types differ.
- “A failed crop proves a chemical release.” Poor growth can also result from compaction, drought, salinity, pests, or nutrient imbalance; investigate rather than guessing.
- “Farmers can resume after a fixed number of seasons.” Release depends on the contaminant, exposure pathway, legal standard, and monitoring evidence at that site.
What a farmer can prepare now—without entering unsafe land
- Collect incident dates, maps, photographs taken from safe locations, land records, crop histories, and water-source information.
- Identify the national mine-action contact, environmental regulator, extension office, and laboratories able to perform the required analyses.
- List intended crops, livestock uses, irrigation sources, workers, and nearby homes so assessors can evaluate exposure pathways.
- Keep potentially affected produce, feed, water, manure, and soil separate from unaffected supplies until authorities advise otherwise.
- Budget for professional sampling, laboratory analysis, worker protection, fencing, drainage repairs, and repeated monitoring—not only fertilizer.
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