An Agrarian Service is to be established in order to improve food security in the Znob-Novhorodske settlement municipality. Its primary function is to help residents with land cultivation, food self-sufficiency of local residents and mitigation of the consequences of war. This was announced by Leonid Sotnikov, Head of the Finance, Economic Development and Investment Department of the Executive Committee.
The project will be implemented by Organic Ukraine Public Union – North and a utility company of the municipality, Znoba-Blahoustrii, with the support of the U-LEAD Programme. The project provides for the purchase of the necessary tillage equipment, a mini-tractor with a reverse drive system and attachments. Consulting agronomic services will also be provided to residents, and a database of households receiving tillage services will be created.
According to Maryna Lobova, Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe in the Sumy oblast, the creation of the Agrarian Service is a continuation of the municipality’s cooperation with U-LEAD in the direction of the 2022-2023 Food Security Programme of the Znob-Novhorodske Village Council. The development of this document was the first stage. It is already finalised and officially approved, and the creation of the service is the second stage.
“The cost of the project is over UAH 1.4 million. As early as in the autumn of 2023, residents of the Znob-Novhorodske municipality will see the first steps of the Service’s work,” said Ihor Ahibalov, Project Coordinator and Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD in the Luhansk oblast.
According to him, the main target audience of the project is low-income and elderly families, who, with proper support, could increase the amount of fruit and vegetable production on their own plots of land. The main task of the project is the maximum coverage of such households, and significantly expanding the segment of the municipality’s population, which is able to provide themselves with enough homegrown food and improve their financial standing. At the same time, the Agrarian Service is capable of expanding the scope of its clients to include beginner entrepreneurs in the future.
Then the Service might apply a mechanism of compensation for the cost of its maintenance, both from other, neighbouring municipalities and from the residents.
“Note that one of the partners of the project is the Znob-Novhorodske Professional Agrarian Lyceum, which has sufficient expertise to be involved after the completion of the project to advise households on agricultural issues and to ensure the operation of the Agrarian Service. Purchased equipment can be used for practical training for the students. This, in addition to the direct impact on the implementation of the Food Security Programme, will clearly showcase the development possibilities of the territory, despite its location in dangerous proximity to the aggressor state,” said Mr Ahibalov.
He emphasised the educational component of the project’s activities: they contribute to the creation of a cooperative around a municipal enterprise on the territory of the municipality and involve advisory services and beginner entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector contributing to the development of local programmes to support cooperatives in this process.
At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Cabinet of Ministers issued Order No. 327-р dated 29 April 2022 on food security in Ukraine, which provides for the introduction of such food security programmes for local self-government. To help with this, the U-LEAD Programme introduced a new training initiative and selected four pilot municipalities. Znob-Novhorodske was chosen to participate, the only one in Sumy oblast. As part of the initiative, the experts helped municipal officials identify effective tools to respond to challenges in the food sector caused by the war.