Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Ukrainian farmers have been farming through dangerous — and sometimes deadly — conditions. During the summer of 2022, Russian forces occupied 22% of Ukraine’s farmland, impacting 28% of the country’s winter crops and 18% of its summer crops, according to the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. Though some of that territory has now been regained, farms are still a battlefield in much of the country. 

The Howard G. Buffett Foundation has been providing Ukrainian farmers on the front lines with replacement tractors and combines, and helping to streamline demining efforts for affected farmers. 

“We’re trying to be as innovative as possible to make farming safer, more efficient and get more land back into production,” said Buffett at the 2024 National No-Tillage Conference in conversation with agronomist and No-Till Legend Barry Fisher. 

First-Generation Farmer

Son of billionaire investor and philanthropist Warren Buffett, Howard was not destined to follow in his father’s footsteps. Farming since 1986, Buffett has expanded his acres from Omaha, Neb., to Decatur, Ill., Arizona and South Africa. 

“I got into it in a very odd way, and I just fell in love with it,” Buffett says. 

As repayment of a favor to a neighboring farmer, Buffett was tasked with discing terraces using a cabless John Deere 5020 tractor. In the dark with one headlight and black smoke in his eyes, Buffett mistakenly disced everything his neighbor had just planted. 

South of Chernihiv in Ukraine, Howard G. Buffett operates one of the combines purchased…