Ukraine Part 5 - Private Farmers Association Assessment
The objective of the USAID project in this Oblast was to assess the
progress of the Private Farmers Association (PFA), an association of
farmers who had left the Collectives to start their own family
farms. I had met with
Ivan Budko, president of the PFA (Private Farmers Association) at my
briefing in Kiev. He explained that his busy schedule would keep him
from accompanying me while we were in the Sumy Oblast. He filled me
in on the trouble they’d had with the government red tape, and with
the animosity from the workers who didn’t want to leave the
government Collectives.
A major problem for the private farmers, Ivan said is the financing
of the equipment needed to get started in farming on their own, for
the fuel, seed and fertilizer. This project includes over eighty PFA
members in the Konltop, Okhtyrka, Rommy and Sumy Rayons in the Sumy
Oblast. Our objective was to help the PFA members start a Western
Style member-owned Cooperative to serve as a model Cooperative owned
by those that had abandoned the Collectives in favor of private
farming.
From the roadside store we drove into the village where about twenty
farmers, many with their wives, were gathered in a meeting room at
the former Administration building. Few, if any, understood English
so Igor, as Interpreter, had his work cut out for him. The first
hour was taken up as each farmer told about the progress they were
making in the private sector and how they had increased their yields
considerably as compared to the Collective’s production. A concern
they had was regarding the purchase of their costly inputs, fuel,
seed and fertilizer from the government warehouses.
The question, “How much is the bribe in America?” came up as it does
at almost every farmer meeting in the FSU, Former Soviet Union. Igor
became proficient at answering that question without my help.
Although I never knew what he told them, they at least
applauded his answer.
Following the standard meal of mixed vegetables, borscht (creamy
beet soup) and boiled potatoes served by the wives at the conclusion
of the three hour meeting, the meeting was concluded with the older
men telling Cossack legends and ended with shouting and cheering as
they finished another shot of vodka while singing of the Cossack
Anthem. (The Cossacks being
an ethnic group that has lived in the Ukraine and Russia for
centuries.)
As Igor and I prepared to leave, Gregor, one of the farmers invited
us to stop at his farm about 3 miles away. He had built a house, a
barn and machinery shed within the last few years since he and his
brother had acquired the land and started their private family farm.
He had previously served in
the Russian Army, worked on the Collective, and then he and his
brother started their farming operation when land privatization
began. He was proud of his accomplishments; his crop yields were
much higher than yields at the Collective.
We walked with Gregor past a large Holstein bull tied to a hay
feeder on the way to the barn to show off his Holstein dairy herd of
16 milk cows, a number of heifers and small calves. He bragged about
his milk production per cow being twice that of the Collective.
During our visit, Gregor had many questions regarding proper feeding
of his milk cows and about the practice of artificial insemination
used by farmers in America.
Gregor was an avid hunter, showing off his shooting skills by
shooting a crow off the barn roof.
His wife, Svetlana, not to be outdone, also demonstrated her
shooting skills by shooting a small branch off a tree with her
double-barrel shot gun while their guard dog was going berserk on
his leash, barking excitedly at the noise. Svetlana explained that
hunting hares and fox were popular sports in the Ukraine; she said
they would form hunting parties and go hunting together with friends
on Sundays.
Gregor’s neighbor, Viktor, also a PFA member who had stopped by for
the visit was upset about the Collective Manager cheating the PFA
members out of their pay when they left the Collective. As a result,
many of the PFA farmers didn’t have enough money to purchase
livestock, or parts to repair their equipment.
As we were thanking Gregor
and Svetlana for the visit and for that shot of vodka, we could hear
the whistle of a locomotive in the distance. Viktor said it was
probably the freight train traveling from Karkov to Kiev, which
stops at the Collective to pick up butter and cheese.
Viktor had arranged for us to visit a Collective that same day in
the Konltop on our return to Sumy. He rode with us, gave Igor
directions and explained how the workers at the Collectives had
animosity toward the PFA members.
PFA members along with Ivan Budko, president of the PFA were
no longer welcome to visit the Collectives. Viktor explained that
two PFA farmers, Oleg and Konstantin would be there waiting for us
to arrive. They were still friends of the manager because they were
leasing farm land from the Collective.
They could give us an
unobstructed tour in the mid-afternoon because of the work days
being shortened during winter months, the workers had left for their
homes in the village.
Oleg and Konstantin met us at the entrance, standing near an antique
tractor once in use by the Collective.
It looked like a 1930 model
English Ferguson tractor. I remember my uncle had a Ford-Ferguson
tractor during WW-2. We could feel a chill in the air; the sun was
starting to set in the west as we walked through an area where the
machinery was parked. Everything was in disarray and the machinery
park looked like a massive junk yard.
I counted over thirty older
rusty tractors, many with flat tires. Most of the combines and
tillage equipment were old and in need of repair. Konstantin
explained the reason he and Oleg could lease land from the
Collective was because there were no parts available to repair all
the equipment in time for planting, causing much of the land to lay
idle. We had to walk around long broken trees that lay across the
grounds, having been blown down there by a wind storm the previous
fall. When looking
around here, I couldn’t fathom what in this junkyard the barking
guard dogs, on their long leashes, were suppose to be protecting.
The grain storage bins were empty, all the corn and wheat had been
shipped out shortly after harvest last year as required under the
government’s quota system. As
we walked through one of the repair shops, Konstantin pointed to a
broken down combine and indicated some of the machinery had been
waiting for new wheel bearings and other repair parts for over a
year. I couldn’t help
but notice one of the trash bins held quite a number of empty vodka
bottles.
A short distance beyond the bins on the slope of a hill we could see
the collective’s village. The roof tops of about one hundred houses
were partly visible through the oak, maple and pine trees. The farm
land was without trees, roads or farmsteads; just snow-covered open
land as far as one could see. Gregor and Viktor had started planting
rows of trees on their farms to prevent soil erosion, which helped
to increase their yields.
The soil erosion issue had never been addressed by the
Collective farms.
The Training Meetings were coordinated with Oblast officials for the
purpose of assembling in central meeting locations.
As usual, the entrances of
these large soviet style administrative buildings where the meetings
were held displayed statues of Lenin, military heroes on horses, or
old army vehicles.
In the entryways, the walls held an array of pictures
featuring military heroes, each wearing a breast full of medals.
I was inspired by the interest many of these Collective workers had
in a future as a Private Farmer by joining the PFA and converting
the collectives to member owned Cooperatives.
From the questions I was being asked, it was evident that
most of them knew very little about farming outside the Ukraine.
Privatization was a completely new concept to learn and understand,
however, the PFA members attending these Farmer Training Meetings
helped to answer some of their questions about Private Farming.
To help illustrate the farming methods in the U.S., I provided
handouts and pictures of modern equipment, livestock facilities,
grain storage buildings, etc. used in the U.S.
The pictures of our dairy
cows were particularly interesting to many as they had never seen
pictures of Jerseys, Gurnseys or Angus cattle, they only knew about
the black and white Holsteins they had in the Ukraine.
by Everil Quist, International Agri-business Consultant
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