The Znob-Novhorodska municipality of Shostka district aims to strengthen food security despite the war, the proximity to the Russian border and constant shelling. They are assisted by the Agrarian Service municipal institution, established with the support of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme. This was stated by Leonid Sotnikov, Head of the Finance, Economic Development and Investment Department of the Executive Committee of the Znob-Novhorodska Settlement Council.
According to him, its primary function is to help residents with land cultivation, food self-sufficiency of local residents and mitigation of the consequences of war. The Service has performed its function as the municipality managed to harvest a record-breaking potato crop and provide it to all vulnerable groups of the population:
"How did that happen? We established the Service with the help of international partners, analysed the needs of the population, and defined those requiring the municipal support. At the time of sowing, the residents of the municipality got advice from the Service’s expert agronomist, were provided with seed, and had their land tilled with a brand-new mini-tractor. Our first step was to grow potatoes. Out of the planned and required amount of 10 tonnes, we managed to harvest about 30 tonnes. More than 60 households got free assistance in land cultivation and crops from the municipality."
The record-breaking crop raised new challenges for the municipality: where to store and how to deal with the surplus? Leonid Sotnikov explains that creating a cooperative would solve the situation, but people associate cooperatives with the Soviet collective farms and avoid participating in such associations because of their lack of information on how it works in the modern society. Therefore, the municipality conducts outreach activities:
"The yielded potatoes were enough to provide for the vulnerable part of the population. We had a lot of surplus left, which we distributed among the residents. Currently, we consider how to process this surplus, discuss with the population their preferences for cultivation (we offer a variety of seed) and their vision of further processing of the finished product," says Sotnikov.
He believes that the crops could be used for making, for instance, borsch kits for the public or for the Armed Forces:
"However, while simple in terms of its composition this issue is complex from the organisational perspective. This is because of the cooperation of the municipality with the population and with the local businesses and the search for additional financing for the procurement of processing equipment."
"The Agrarian Service plans to operate in 2024, as long as the situation allows," notes Leonid Sotnikov:
"We already have requests from the residents of the municipality to provide such assistance this year. This is because of the shelling intensity, which makes it impossible to make precise plans, as people leave the municipality in search of safer locations. We definitely cannot ignore people’s problems, but the security situation must be considered."
According to Maryna Lobova, Head of the U-LEAD with Europe Regional Office in Sumy Oblast, the Znob-Novhorodska municipality demonstrates their resilience and strength despite the difficult war conditions by implementing the food security plan in the oblast:
"The Agrarian Service, established with our support, has achieved its first year of operation. This first year was productive and demonstrated to the municipality the several stages of the food security process: starting from researching the population’s needs, raising funds, cultivating produce and then using the surplus."
In her words, food security matters not only in terms of providing the population with products in certain emergency situations, but also because it stimulates economic processes.
It is worth mentioning that establishing the Agrarian Service follows the municipality’s cooperation with U-LEAD to implement the Food Security Programme for 2022–2023 in the territory of the Znob-Novhorodska Settlement Council, developed jointly with U-LEAD experts. Drafting this document became the first stage of the cooperation, while establishing the Service was the second stage. The support provided within the second stage totalled over UAH 1.4 million.
The idea of creating the Service was implemented by the Organic Ukraine. North public union and Znoba-Blagoustriy municipal enterprise with the support of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme. This project envisaged the procurement of the necessary land cultivation equipment such as a mini-tractor with a reverse drive system and attachments, agronomic advice to residents as well as the database formation for the households provided with land cultivation services.
