AgroInvest Quarterly Report: July – September 2013

The purpose of AgroInvest is to provide technical assistance to accelerate and broaden economic recovery in Ukraine and increase the country’s contribution to global food security efforts. AgroInvest is achieving this objective by supporting a stable, market-oriented agricultural policy environment, stimulating access to financial services for small and medium producers (SMPs), and facilitating a more effective market infrastructure for SMPs

The scope of work identifies three main components, refined into six tasks, as follows:

  • Component 1: Support a Stable, Market-Oriented Environment
    Task 1-a: Accelerate Market Oriented Reforms
    Task 1-b: Strengthen Industry Associations
    Task 1-c: Provide Public Education for Land Rights
  • Component 2: Stimulate Access to Finance
    Task 2-a: Sustainable Access to Financial Services for SMPs Provided
  • Component 3: Facilitate Market Infrastructure for Small and Medium Producers
    Task 3-a: Producer Organization Development
    Task 3-b: Develop Wholesale Markets and Other Market Infrastructure

AgroInvest is a five-year project, extending to an estimated completion date of January 24, 2016. The scope of this Project encompasses the following U.S. Foreign Assistance Framework Program Areas: 4.2 Trade and Investment, 4.5 Agriculture, 4.6 Private Sector Competitiveness, and 4.7 Economic Opportunity.

QUARTERLY HIGHLIGHTS

In July-September 2013, the AgroInvest project team continued technical implementation activities in the project focus areas. Key activities and accomplishments during this period included the following:

  • Developed proposals on improving the main provisions of the draft Law of Ukraine “On Agricultural Land Circulation”, presented them to partners, discussed them during regional public events, and submitted them to the Government of Ukraine (GoU) through the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food (MAPF) in the form of an “alternative” draft law;
  • Five agricultural industry associations were selected through a competitive process for grant awards to build their capacity in advocacy and agricultural policy analysis and commenced implementation of the capacity building programs with two associations: the Ukrainian Pig Breeders Association and Organic Federation of Ukraine;
  • Implemented a large-scale training campaign for state registrars and notaries on new registration procedures in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice and the State Registration Service. Training events were conducted in 10 regions with a total of 1,222 participants, representing 34% of the total number of state registrars in Ukraine and 1-2 public notaries per rural raion;
  • Continued the Land Rights Public Education and Outreach Campaign reaching an additional 1.8 million people through a variety of media instruments. The Legal Land Rights Services Program continued with an increasing focus on improving governance and democracy in the target communities through the newly developed and innovative expert groups on land issues at the raion level involving local authorities, NGOs and community groups;
  • In cooperation with subcontractor TA Consult, developed innovative training modules to be used in the comprehensive agrotechnological trainings for partner financial institutions;
  • Raised awareness of SMPs on opportunities of accessing lending resources via a press tour which also sparked the development of an educational video entitled “Revival of Rural Credit Cooperation”;
  • Initiated a public dialog among credit unions and their governing bodies regarding introducing new legislative initiatives that could impact credit unions’ agrilending abilities;
  • Conducted two specialized agrotechnological trainings for SMP-customers of partner credit unions, their customers and potential financial partners (Agro Capital Management and Oikocredit Ukraine) to promote modern technological solutions for peach production combined with affordable lending offers and, the concept of using partner technological support as an effective instrument for risk hedging for lending through credit unions;
  • Completed the national gender analysis of rural agriculture issues and opportunities. The analysis will be used to help shape Ukrainian policy initiatives with a specific focus on the needs of rural women and communities as well as to shape the activities of the AgroInvest Project and its programmatic partners;
  • Conducted the training of trainers of the trainers who will be working with NGOs throughout Ukraine to better understand and integrate gender mainstreaming into their activities focused on rural development.

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