Kharkiv Oblast farmers, in search of better profits, on study visit to U.S. (06/22/03)

Kharkiv Oblast farmers, in search of better profits, on study visit to U.S.

by Jan Sherbin

CINCINNATI - When we hear about the boom harvests in Ukraine over the past couple of seasons, it sounds like good times for grain farmers.

But it's not necessarily so.

Bumper crops mean a great deal of grain coming to market, all at one time. When grain supplies get so high, prices dive. Farmers who should be enjoying the prosperity of a successful growing season instead find themselves looking for loans in order to stay in business. The next season, they can't pay off their loans because they can't get high enough prices on their yield.

A group of 15 agriculturists from Kharkiv Oblast have completed a three-week quest for solutions to this dilemma. On a study tour run by Cincinnati's Center for Economic Initiatives, they learned about grain storage technology that allows farmers to hold on to grain until ready to sell, and about the commodities marketplace.

They visited the Chicago Board of Trade, manufacturers of grain storage facilities and technology, family farms, major farm equipment manufacturers, and governmental agencies.

The central idea of the study tour was that these farmers need to gain some control of their own profitability, and they need government support.

"Grain prices have fallen by half," said Dr. Belal Siddique, who organized the study tour. "They have to find ways to get good return if they put in good effort and get good results."

Members of the study tour represented farms of various sizes in the Kharkiv Oblast in eastern Ukraine, as well as a marketing and policy manager from Kharkiv's department of agriculture, an auctioneer from Kharkiv's developing commodities exchange, an agricultural researcher and a soil management scientist.

During the study tour, members of the group met with agriculture experts in six states - Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Iowa and Missouri.

Their tour was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). It was the 14th study tour run by the Center for Economic Initiatives, with tours in aquaculture (production of edible fish), livestock and farm equipment manufacturing scheduled for later this year.

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