Farming business school operates in Zhytomyr oblast
A year ago, in his interview with The Day, farmer from Zhytomyr oblast Leonid Mykhailov shared his experience in preparing Ukrainian young men and sometimes girls for on-the-job training at farms in the countries with developed agriculture, in part, the US, Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, etc. In the six years of his participation in various international programs, about two hundred students have gone to study abroad. Dozens of them are still there. Together they created an informal organization, the Farming Future of Ukraine. Not long ago Radomyshl, a district center in Zhytomyr oblast, hosted this club’s meeting. It was there that this author had the opportunity to make acquaintance with former exchange students, some of whom, in the opinion of Mr. Mykhailov, are able in the near future to head if not the whole state then at least the Ministry of Agriculture.
Serhiy Kravets is 27 and has a higher pedagogical education. He spent year and a half at a Danish farm learning how to tend pigs, and later spent nine months in Ireland. For the last year he has been working as senior manager at the DANAM Farm’s subsidiary organized by the Danes in Kaharlyk region, Kyiv oblast. This is a farm raising thoroughbred pigs using up to date technologies. Thirty people work there, most of who were trained by Serhiy himself. In the year of his being in charge of the farm, the livestock has increased from 2000 to 6000. The farm delivers pork mostly for Kyiv’s elite stores and restaurants, meaning that certain standards of fattening the pigs have to be rigorously observed. Serhiy says that in the last year he has been able to root out theft at the farm, giving his subordinates a choice: either not steal and earn decent money or bid their jobs goodbye. In the immediate future Serhiy has a good chance to become a joint owner of the farm. His major principle in his relations with officials is, never bribe them and never give up if you know you are right. He admits, “Though I went through on-the-job training abroad and had an opportunity to stay there, I was always sure I would come back and work here in Ukraine. Because I feel I belong here. It is so nice to go to sleep knowing that you have done something useful today for not only yourself but your country as well — which is all the same to me. Then you feel an inner harmony.”
Oleh Tkachuk (Radomyshl region, Zhytomyr oblast) is 26. He graduated from an agricultural institute. This fall he founded a farm of his own. In addition to his allotment, he leased the ones of his fellow villagers (around 50 hectares in all), and plowed them with his uncle’s tractor. Oleh shared his plans with The Day: the farm is supposed to give him a decent income, securing well-being for his family. Note that the farm is situated in the remote Polissia, where there are almost no profitable farms.
Pavlo Chub is also under 30. After on-the-job training at European dairies equipped with the most modern machinery, he came to work for the Rud firm renowned not only in Zhytomyr with its dairy produce and became one of leading managers there. He can speak for hours about how one can achieve high quality milk.
Viktor Ivanytsky is 31; after serving in the militia he went to Denmark and spent 18 months there. Together with a Dane and two other exchange students, the brothers Ihor and Oleh Kozlov who are graduates of the Kyiv Polytechnic University, they founded the Danico Ltd. enterprise in Cherniakhiv, Zhytomyr oblast, creating jobs for twelve employees. They bought premises for an office and two production sectors, where they produce parts for foreign confectionery processing lines. Also, they brought a used Volvo combine from Denmark and perform orders for mowing and threshing grain crops. During the hot season clients were standing in line for their services. In addition, they leased 36 hectares of land to prove that the far from being best local soil is able to produce decent profits. In the future they plan to organize used agricultural equipment supplies from Denmark.
Mr. Ivanytsky and the Kozlov brothers are convinced that to speed up developing private business, farming in part, it is necessary to allow importing relatively cheap used combines, tractors, etc. from the developed countries and remove the eight-years limit existing until recently. They even sent letters to the then Prime Minister Kinakh on this subject. It seems that this problem is now solved. Their principle is similar to the one of Mr. Kravets: they do not bribe officials, speaking with them only in the language of law, which they have learned thoroughly. Moreover, in Viktor’s opinion, the word owner should become respectable in our society, since a man cares only about something that belongs to him. “We are masters of this country, and we can and must get it in order,” he persuaded his colleagues.
This author would probably not tell in detail about these young men if he had not sensed their creative energy. There is one more thing. Going through training abroad, these young farmers see the world through, so to say, European eyes. Together with the knowledge they obtained and the will to build their own futures, this is an extraordinary potential. However, whether this potential will be implemented fully and efficiently depends not only on them. They want to build their business and their lives according to civilized rules. And here in Ukraine they will have to fight for this, above all, with domestic bureaucracy which has developed the habit of establishing its own rules. The young farmers won the first round. It would be wonderful if the next ones ended with the same result.
