In June, 15 municipalities of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast have a chance to join the pilot project “Smallholder Initiative Groups” implemented by IPRSA with the support of the EU. Olena Tertyshna, Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, commented on this:
“One of the tasks of our team is to help the municipalities of the region learn about new initiatives or opportunities for their development. This time we have a pilot programme of the creation of smallholder initiative groups (SIGs) under the IPRSA project and the terms for the municipalities to join this programme as municipal facilitators.”
Ross Bull, manager at the EU project “Institutional Policy Reform for Smallholder Agriculture” (IPRSA), gave a welcoming speech. He emphasised that this project should increase the capacity of the agricultural sector at both national and municipality levels, i.e. at the ground level.
According to him, the project aims to form smallholder initiative groups at the municipality level, focusing them on innovative ideas and increasing incomes. One of the important tasks for local self-government is to create a network of municipal facilitators who can help micro and smallholders or farmers start their businesses and overcome obstacles.
“We are starting this pilot programme in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in order to develop mechanisms that we will further scale up to the entirety of Ukraine,” said Ross Bull.
Serhii Zamidra, an expert at the EU project “Institutional Policy Reform for Smallholder Agriculture” (IPRSA), introduced the idea of the EU-funded project at the event.
According to the speaker, the difference in the EU approaches is that significant support is provided at the level of micro- and smallholders, at the rural development level. Significant EU funding is directed to the unified agricultural policy, which comprehensively supports both agricultural producers and rural development. Therefore, when developing the project, key groups were identified as micro-, small- and medium-holders, which have less than 120 hectares of land under cultivation or no more than 100 cows.
Individual entrepreneurs or legal entities, as well as individuals registered in the state agrarian register, can join the project. That is, virtually any residents of the village who are motivated and interested in development can participate in the programme.
The main directions of the project include beekeeping, pig farming, dairy farming and horticulture.
“It is important for the municipality to decide on the direction of main interest to identify the clusters to be developed, what to focus on in order to maximise the benefits for the municipality and its residents,” said Serhii Zamidra.
The project is aimed at opening new opportunities for smallholders. According to the speaker, both participants and municipal facilitators will undergo training. They learn how to create added value for a product as well as how to use SWOT analysis and other tools to achieve cost-efficiency.
“It is important for the project to encourage municipalities to create smallholder initiative groups to implement innovation. Any policy introduced at the national or regional level without the participation of municipalities and stakeholders will never be fully implemented. That’s why we start with the basics: creating groups, determining their needs, finding directions for implementation,” said Mr Zamidra.
Facilitators — appointed by the local self-government bodies — will help the rural residents with starting their businesses. They will work with “leading” smallholders who understand the challenges of agriculture and wish to take advantage of market opportunities. These “leading” smallholders will be able to lead the discussion on technical issues related to smallholder agriculture. Together, local facilitators and “leading” smallholders will be able to help smallholders work out how best to introduce innovation into their farming practices.
A total of 15 municipalities of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast will be selected to participate in the pilot project. They will undergo offline training as early as in June.
If you believe that facilitators from your local municipality should join in the training/capacity building, please send the following information by 17:00 on Tuesday 11 June 2024 to Serhii Zamidra (zamidra@gmail.com):
- Name of the municipality.
- Name, position and phone/email address of the two proposed facilitators (for further communication).
- A brief formal letter (1 page) providing justification on why the municipality should participate in an offline training/capacity building session for local facilitators on Thursday, 20 June 2024.