Legal Aid Center Helps Farmer Start Business
Stanislav Sych, a miller from Nykyforivtsi Village of Vinnytsia Oblast, inherited 3 hectares of land. He did not have much farm experience and wanted to lease out his new parcel. However, all the land in the village rada had lain unplowed for three years. In order to get some profit from the land, he had to roll up his sleeves. Mr. Sych worked persistently: he assembled a grain-harvesting combine from a junk heap and rented 20 more hectares from the village rada. However, he had a tough start: in 2002 and 2003, bad weather killed almost the whole crop.
Help came, when hope faded. The lawyers of the Vinnytsia Legal Aid Center (LAC) of the Ukraine Land Titling Initiative Project (ULTI), the largest USAID-sponsored project in Ukraine, held an educational seminar in Nykyforivtsi. ULTI’s lawyers brought free legal and farm advice. Stanislav Sych asked which easy-to-grow agricultural crops would best suit his 23 hectares fields and generate decent income. LAC agronomist Kateryna Gaidai recommended that Sych plant no more than three cultures, with winter wheat, barley and oats looking best given market prices. The equipment for sowing, growing and harvesting these crops is similar, so Sych could use the same agricultural machinery, saving time and money.
Mr. Sych’s good management and LAC’s recommendations brought him over 40 quintal of winter wheat, 32 quintal of barley and 26 quintal of oats per hectare in 2004, and generated an excellent cash income. Mr. Sych then decided to enlarge his farm and rent the land shares of his fellow villagers, which previously had lain fallow. USAID’s assistance helped the new farmer, and many of his fellow villagers, who received jobs and rental income from leasing out their land.
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Stanislav Sych and his new aid: ULTI Magazine “Land Privatization: Law Practice, Problems”
Credit: Photo by L. Slominska |
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