Agricultural cooperatives in eastern Ukraine receive machinery from FAO
Four agricultural service cooperatives in the conflict-affected Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine today are receiving agricultural equipment for land cultivation – to improve production of cereal, forage, and oil-bearing crops. The distribution is the latest stage in FAO’s project to support farming cooperation in eastern Ukraine.
A chronic lack of modern sowing and harvesting equipment remains one of Ukraine’s main obstacles to increasing grain output and quality. Yet many small and medium-scale farms in the conflict-affected eastern regions struggle to obtain the necessary long-term loans for capital investments.
One component of the project – which is financed by the Government of Canada – aims to raise incomes, create employment opportunities for the rural poor, and improve their technical capacities by improving the economic environment and developing cooperatives.
To this end, 20 farmer groups who formed cooperatives were selected from eight districts belonging to two regions: Donetsk and Lugansk oblasts.
With support from the FAO project, four of the cooperatives are receiving seed planters, harrows, mowing machines, and cultivators.
FAO experts conducted a rigorous evaluation of existing cooperatives and groups that had expressed interest in participating in the initiative. Applications were received from 49 groups in the two regions, representing the interests of more than 886 people.
Selection was based on feasibility and competition. Apart from machinery, around 400 cooperative members and representatives of initiating groups have been trained in cooperative management, business planning and implementation of economic initiatives. In total, up to 30 training sessions were delivered in 2017.
Next up is procurement of equipment to enhance production of grain crops, vegetables and fruit, as well as dairy processing equipment, for another 16 cooperatives.
“Promoting the cooperative movement in eastern Ukraine has an essential importance,” said Farrukh Toirov, FAO emergency programme coordinator in Ukraine. “Such agricultural service communities carry out economic activities that generate employment opportunities for households in rural areas.”
“One should understand that these cooperatives were not built in one day,” he continued. “Villagers faced different challenges along the way. It was not easy to find and procure comprehensive equipment for a decent price. The search for market channels was not easy. But the groups overcame all these obstacles with our support.
Most cooperatives participating in the project are involved in either collection and processing of milk, mechanized crop-planting services, or animal fodder preparation. The FAO project focuses mainly on cooperatives working on crop or livestock production – both popular with small-scale producers in eastern Ukraine. Growing attention is focused on the other farmer groups – producing fruit, berries, vegetables, honey, and other high added value agricultural products.
FAO’s emergency programme in eastern Ukraine is financed by the Governments of Canada and France, as well as by FAO’s own resources, with the overall objective of enhancing food security for more than 45 000 people residing along the contact line and improving agricultural value chains to facilitate economic growth in these two regions.
About FAO
Since 2015, FAO has been at the forefront of efforts to measure and enhance households’ resilience to food insecurity in the East of Ukraine. It has established two project coordination offices, in Kyiv and Kramatorsk. The FAO team applies its technical expertise in humanitarian actions to support and preserve agriculture-based livelihoods that are threatened due to the continuing armed conflict.
17 November 2017, Kyiv, Ukraine