2025 - PSD "Green education for sustainable agriculture in Ukraine"
The project is executed in 2024 – 2025 with financial support of the Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands via RVO.nl
The purpose of this project is to set up a tailormade online training on sustainable agriculture practices (under the sustainable food system approach) for students of agricultural educational institutions, farmers, experts in the field and wider interested audience of Ukraine.
The training will facilitate knowledge transfer from the Dutch experience of introduction of the sustainable agriculture practices in the Netherlands. To ensure compliance of the Ukrainian agricultural sector with today's challenges, it's essential for Ukrainian farmers, students from agricultural universities and consultants to learn how the transition toward more sustainable practices is possible.
The overall purpose of the project
The project will showcase the knowledge and expertise of the Dutch agrifood and horticulture sectors in promoting sustainable food systems and creating social and economic opportunities in Ukraine.
In order to address the local needs, an expert group will be created with the teachers from Agricultural Universities (partners of AgroKebety and its coordinators) and local businesses that are members of UCAB. This expert group will study the cases of EU countries on sustainable agriculture and use them for the development of the “study course + models for Ukraine” which will further be incorporated into the curriculum of the local agricultural institutes.
Through communication with agricultural companies and farmers who are members of UCAB, the group of experts will elaborate the local case studies to include in the teaching materials. Finally, through introduction of the developed modules into the existing curricula at least 10 Ukrainian universities participating at the Agrokebety project, the project will provide to knowledge transfer capacity building in the field of sustainable agriculture in Ukraine and will fill in the gap between priorities of the recently adopted policy and business needs on the way to the integration to the European Union (EU).
Results of the first stage
At the first stage Association UCAB and the Wageningen University and Research agreed the structure and content of the new course “Regenerative Agriculture” and made an announcement for students from 12 “green” universities in different regions of Ukraine, primarily learning agronomy and ecology at master programmes.
The lectures were moderated by Alla Kravchenko, Anatoliy Tsyrkun and Oleksandr Radchenko from the Association UCAB under support of Dr. Bert Smit from the WUR side. All lectures were conducted in English with simultaneous translation into Ukrainian language that allowed to offer equal opportunities for all students who were interested in this topic. Through the digital platform ZOOM, they were able to choose language and also to write or ask their questions and opinions during the Q&A sessions. Active discussions helped to consolidate the material presented and adapt it to Ukrainian realities.
For better communication with students we used our Telegram channel “Agrokebety 2024-2025: all students” as well as groups of students at each of the partner universities. Students received announcement of each lecture with its general overview, the link to join as well as very useful pre-reads related to the topic of a lecture.
After announcement of the course 225 participants registered and attended the lectures. The average number of on-line listeners at each lecture was 110 persons.
The novelty and importance of the topic of regenerative agriculture, as well as the high scientific level of the information presented by the professors and researchers of the Wageningen University and Research, attracted also great interest from the academic staff (lecturer) from the “green” universities, who also attended the course lectures. As a follow up, both WUR and Association UCAB received letters of appreciation from some lecturers.
To make the knowledge transfer sustainable and available for all students and academia community in Ukraine and broader, Association UCAB has recorded both English (original) and Ukrainian (simultaneously interpreted) streams of the 10 lectures and together with pre-reads and the presentations from WUR (when it was allowed) designed in an online course uploaded on the digital education platform AgrokebetyPRO. Upon successful completion of the final tests for each of the lectures, the platform offers students the opportunity to obtain a certificate in the relevant language.
The course was complemented by the translation of the documentary film “Planet.Soil” into Ukrainian language with subtitles. The course participants as well as other students at universities and colleges were provided with up to 200 unique codes with one-time access to watch the film. Association UCAB initiated also collecting feedbacks from the students and received 17 unique answers where students shared their impressions of the film, their thoughts on the importance of preserving the soil and life in it, and their opinions on best farming practices that can be used to preserve soil fertility. One of the students wrote: “The film “Planet.Soil” impresses with its visual presentation and depth of scientific approach, revealing the hidden life of the soil. It demonstrates the importance of soil ecosystems for agriculture and climate”.