Ukraine: Smart Garden project
Facinating results of the first year of cooperation
In 2023, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ukraine joined "Smart Garden" project launched by the Continental Farmers Group.
The goal of the initiative is to involve children and young people in agriculture, show them the prospects of modern agricultural technologies, give them practical skills in gardening, entrepreneurship and financial literacy. In 2023 about 150 young people from Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi and Lviv regions took part in the project.
The company Enza Zaden Ukraine and RijkZwaan Ukraine provided vegetable seeds of Dutch selection, agronomic support and trainings on growing technologies. With support of professional farmers and thanks to hard work and diligent learning, the project participants had very good yield.
The vegetables have been processed into traditional Ukrainian dry borsch.
Candied pumpkin together with peanuts became great energy snack.
"Every Ukrainian wants to contribute to our victory to the best of our ability, and children are no exception. So, in addition to the educational component, the project also has a volunteer component. From the dry vegetables, grown by the participants, our defenders can quickly cook delicious Ukrainian borshch. Participants grow pumpkins and even peanuts which are produced into energy snack. We will pass all these products on to our defenders. In addition, we grow peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes for our own use, and we master the technology of growing watermelons and melons.
Traditionally, "Smart Garden" is about villages, because participants grow in their own kitchen gardens. But in 2023, the project also went to cities: in one of Ternopil schools students grow microgreens on a special installation with automatic watering and lighting," says project coordinator Roman Kominyarskyi.
In 2024 the cooperation with the Netherlands Embassy in Ukraine will continue. We invite partners and participants to join.