Cooperative movement is one of the tools to increase the employment of the rural population through the creation of jobs, as well as through small business development in the countryside.

Representatives of the AHs of the Poltava, Khmelnytskyi and Chernihiv Oblasts came to study the experience of development of agricultural cooperatives in the Ternopil Oblast.

The first day of the study tour began with a visit to the berries shock-freezing unit in the village of Horodyshchi. The participants of the study trip were interested in where the locals found money to open the business, where they started from, whether the system of raspberry sale is well thought out, etc. Volodymyr Petrovskyi, head of the Saranchukivska AH, presented hromada’s achievements and difficulties, as well as perspective projects planned to be implemented in the near future.

The continuation of the study trip was even more intense. The guests visited the village of Losyatyn (Kremenets Rayon), where a cooperative strawberry farm “Ecofruits” was established in 2011. The farm was created “from scratch” by the project “Development of Strawberry Cooperatives”, funded by Danone EcosystemFund, Heifer ProjectInternational, Dantrade, and in cooperation with the ICF “Community Wellbeing” and the PA “Innovative Farming and Co-operation”. The farm has also received several auxiliary grants from USAID and UNDP.

Afterwards, the tour participants visited the Pochayiv Lavra and Zbarazh castle. Then they went to the Skorykivska AH. The village head Zenoviy Potikha told about his hromada and provided information on two agricultural cooperatives “Zelena Krynytsia” and “Medonosnyi Sad” operating on the AH territory.

The experience of the organisation of agricultural cooperatives in the Ternopil Oblast shows that the cooperative model of management is an important step in the future of the Ukrainian peasantry. The most important thing is that cooperatives brings life to the regions.

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