The Vinnytsia Local Government Development Centre, established with the support of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme and MinRegion, hosted the “Apple in the Rural Areas’ Development” discussion platform. Representatives of the Vinnytsia Oblast State Administration, heads and deputy heads of oblast’s AHs, representatives of rayon councils and Oblast State Administration, entrepreneurs, farmers, heads of farms, as well as scientists and experts were invited to discuss issues of sustainable hromada development, exchange their views and experience.

The Vinnytsia Oblast is the leading agrarian region of the country, therefore, in view of decentralisation and new opportunities for hromadas, the issue of support of agricultural producer and farming development is extremely important. In the opinion of the participants of the event, the development of cooperation in the countryside and increase of added value of agricultural products is a perspective direction.

“The Vinnytsia Oblast is a leader in the agrarian sector. We have widely representation of grain production, sugar industry, as well as horticulture with the largest share of apple harvest. There are 25,000 hectares of gardens in the region, and more than 30% of them are apple orchards cultivated with intensive technology. A peculiarity is that 57% of private peasant farming enterprises are involved in horticulture in the Vinnytsia Oblast, so the development of farming is a topical issue. The most active cultivation of apples is presented in the Bar, Tulchyn, Sharhorod Rayons, but other hromadas have strong positions in this direction as well. It is important to develop mechanisms for solving the main problems of the sector development – production of quality standardised products, their storage and processing. We are able to grow, but we are not always able to sell. There are certain recommendations of scientists, ideas worked out by the VinnytsiaSadVynProm, Vinnytsia LGDC, experts, thus, you need to apply everything in practice and focus on the results. It is also necessary to move to organic production, because this direction has a large share in European markets,” said Mykola Tkachuk, Director of the Department of Agro-Industrial, Environmental and Natural Resources of the Vinnytsia Oblast State Administration.

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