USAID LINC Field Day in Crimea Features Vegetable Production Know-How
June 24, 2011 — In Crimea’s Saky Raion’s village of Ivanivka, USAID LINC carried out a Field Day, which focused on vegetable production and attracted over 150 agriculture practitioners and officials from both Crimea and mainland Ukraine.
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Jeffrey Luebbe, USAID LINC Crimea Field Director: “I would like to thank all who have come here from different parts of Crimea and other regions of Ukraine. I want to extend special thanks to Mr. Seytkhalilov for his hospitality, for organizing this event together with USAID LINC experts. I wish you a pleasant Field Day and hope that you will establish many contacts with businessmen, your colleagues, and your neighbor farmers. I hope that this event will be beneficial and interesting for everybody” |
The Field Day was organized and realized in collaboration with the seed suppliers Clause, Rijk Zwaan, and Sygenta on the land owned by Dilyaver Seytkhalilov, a private entrepreneur. The event objective was to demonstrate effective, up-to-date, open-ground and greenhouse vegetable growing technologies and show how they can enhance the competitiveness of agricultural businesses.
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Mykola Polyushkin, Deputy Agrarian Policy and Food Minister of Crimea: “We welcome very much events like this [Field Day], projects like this, because the problem [of vegetable growing] has acquired a nation-wide character. The price surge that happened last year hit hard the pockets of people. The problem can only be solved by way of holding events like the one we see today. We give the green light to all assistance programs” |
The participants included small to medium agricultural producers, Europe-headquartered suppliers of seed, refrigerating equipment and chemical fertilizers, and public officials.
Kicking off the Field Day, USAID LINC Crimea Field Director Jeffrey Luebbe encouraged the participants to establish business contacts and “derive as much knowledge as possible.” Crimea Deputy Agrarian Policy and Food Minister Mykola Polyushkin called the vegetable growing a “problem industry for Ukraine as a whole” and welcomed holding events such as the Field Day.
USAID LINC considers agriculture a key sector of the Crimean economy and assists in its development through a variety of activities, including field days. The Field Day in Ivanivka was the second such event organized by USAID LINC, the first having been in the Bakhchysaray Raion in July 2010.
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Dilyaver Seytkhalilov, Private Entrepreneur: “I am very pleased that so many people have come to me from all around Crimea. I think all of them were satisfied with this meeting, which has provided a valuable experience in vegetable growing development. Many thanks to USAID LINC for having called and organized the meeting” |
Lyubov Pronina, Crimean Agroindustrial College Plants Protection Faculty Dean: “This event has definitely succeeded. The people who attended it have seen many new technologies, new varieties of vegetable crops – tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, cabbages. There were a many firms that presented their products including drip irrigation systems, biological preparations, fertilizers. I think that such event should be held as often as possible, because they provide a lot of useful information” |
Oleksandr Lekhno, USAID LINC Agribusiness Specialist: “The event goal was not only to demonstrate up-to-date technologies and new varieties of vegetable crops but, first of all, show the potential of Crimean vegetable growers, prove that the Crimean produce is quite competitive against that imported by the quality, price and growing period. We have also shown the products to would-be buyers to good advantage: what Crimean producers offer, and where the vegetables can be obtained in required quantities” |
