Ukraine: news from the Incredible village Malomykolaivka
For years, the members of active community of Malomykolaivka village in Dnipropetrovsk oblast joined forces to make their neighborhood clean and beautiful. To invite new guests and make more friends, they organized a Festival of Pumpkins in the autumn. But this was not enough. They wanted to become known broadly by their famous dessert, candied fruit. So, they applied for the competition “Incredible villages of Ukraine” run by Agroportal and supported by the Netherlands Embassy and they won it!
The idea proposed by the team was to start a cooperative that would provide jobs to local women, promote local recipes of desserts from traditional crops: pumpkins, fruits, and berries. Their proposal was supported by all-Ukrainian online voting and selected by the expert team.
This February, the village Malomykolaivka in Dnipropetrovsk oblast won the competition “Incredible villages of Ukraine'', which was run by Agroportal and supported by the Netherlands Embassy in Ukraine.
Since then, the community has not been sitting still. On the contrary, by now they have purchased the drying and cutting equipment, are arranging the new premises for future production, and are taking care after the crops. The strawberries are already shining in the sun, young plants were supplied by Fresh Forward. In addition to traditional, there will be four Dutch varieties of pumpkins this year, as they were provided by Enza Zaden. Great support from Fresh Forward and Enza Zaden!
If you are interested to learn more about the project, please read the full interview with Svitlana Garnadko, village elder of Petrivsky district of Mykolaivska community Dnipropetrovsk oblast.