The Breadbasket

Since school's out and I've got more time on my hands than I'd ever want to admit, finding ways to benefit my community is quite the challenge. Sure, I've got plenty of other ways to occupy my time. For instance, I'm near the six month countdown until I'm stateside and job search timetables recommend that I get a move on my next step now.

To limit my time in front of my computer, I've hired myself as a farm hand, helping out at a relative's five hectare farm. One thing that Ukraine trumps the US in is produce, when it's in season that is. Farmers' markets abound (called bazaars) where local farmers sell whatever they harvested that morning.

I've got an interest in agriculture, perhaps to honor my ancestors. However, it doesn't go beyond reading reports or articles in The Economist. I can't even identify the leaves of certain crops. The past few weeks on the farm has given me the crash-course education I should've received in self-reliance. I'm not a natural, though. I have a tendency of ripping a few roots, scaring off the chicks, and I'm afraid bee keeping is something well beyond the limits of my intelligence.

Yes, I'm learning a lot, a self-exploration that would make Henry David Thoreau blush. I'm amazed by the stories the farm's owners, Arsen and Halya, tell me about their struggle to maintain the land and turn a profit. Farming isn't their main occupations. Arsen still works part time for the hospital and Halya is retired, the food that they harvest is canned and preserved to feed them and their relatives. The grain is sold to pay for coal. They struggle to water their crops, all by hand. Yes, there are a few hoses but they're useless now. They used to keep a bunch of pigs but are down to only one because the middle man that sells it to the government barely covers the cost of feeding it. I'm amazed by the inefficiency of their farm, so much goes to waste due to a lack of irrigation, manpower and improper seed density and pests. Pesticides and machinery are science-fiction.

They're in the situation that thousands of Ukrainians are in since independence, when larger coop farms were divided into smaller properties that are difficult to maintain without equipment and investment.

Ukraine has great potential when it comes to producing food on it's high-quality fertile soil, chernozem (black soils). I swear stuff grows here like nowhere else on earth. Even little measly shaded plots next to apartment flats bear cucumbers and tomatoes. If anything, Ukraine could be the center of a revolution as our planet's population swells to over seven billion later this year. Everyone knows that during Soviet times Ukraine was known as The Breadbasket.

There are several barriers stalling abundance. The first is land reform which has been encouraged by the international community for years now. Currently, land is leased and can't be sold to foreign agricultural and food industry groups that can offer critical investment. The second is the prominence of government monopolies that set quotas and prices. Other issues I overhear include high-interest financing and lending, poor infrastructure, quality and safety concerns, and the small individual size of land plots. Experts say that with changes to the land-use law alone Ukraine could easily triple or quadruple its output. I'd love to have a conversation about weaknesses in Ukraine's agriculture sector, but personally writing about it does little justice.

So in the meantime I'll get better at milking goats and gathering stories about the glory days.