Residents of the municipality have started receiving land cultivation services: a brand new mini tractor with attachments is already in operation. Locals can also receive advisory services, as an industry agronomy expert was recruited by the Service. Maryna Lobova, Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD in the Sumy oblast, told more about this.
The Agrarian Service was established to improve food security in the Znob-Novhorodske rural municipality. Its primary function is to help residents with land cultivation, food self-sufficiency of local residents and mitigation of the consequences of war. The project is implemented by Organic Ukraine Public Union – North and a utility company of the municipality, Znoba-Blahoustrii, with the support of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme.
According to Ihor Ahibalov, Project Coordinator and Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe in the Luhansk oblast, the first results of the service included the creation of a data register for 200 local households to potentially receive land cultivation services.
“One of the main ideas behind the Agrarian Service is the provision of land cultivation services, including to socially vulnerable groups of people, on preferential terms. Thanks to a variety of attachments, the service can provide a wide range of services throughout the spring-autumn season: from tillage and sowing to harvesting and preparing the soil for the winter,” said Mr Ahibalov.
He emphasised that these were the very first steps of the Agrarian Service. It is still too early to talk about the results of the project. Residents will be able to see the results of the Service in the autumn of 2023, upon completion of the project.
The 2022-2023 Food Security Programme of the Znob-Novhorodske Village Council was developed by the municipality together with the experts of U-LEAD with Europe. The second stage of cooperation was the implementation of one of the projects under the Programme — the creation of the Agrarian Service.