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On 8 December 2022, the 3rd steering meeting of the project "German-Ukrainian Cooperation on Organic Agriculture" (COA) took place online. Participants included representatives of all Ukrainian partners of the project including Vice Minister Markyan Dmytrasevych and Lyudmyla Khomichak for the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, Anna Yermak for the Food Safety Agency (FSA) and Tetiana Ishchenko , the head of the Scientific and Method Centre for Basic and University Education (NMZ). All of them appreciated the trustful cooperation and spoke in favour of further collaboration.
Dieter Goertz from the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture represented the German side of the project, together with team leader Dr. Stefan Dreesmann and representatives of GFA and AFC. The German Ministry emphasized that Germany stands by Ukraine in these difficult times and expressed confidence in the continuation of support through the COA project.
The core of the meeting was the presentation of the current project status. The project leader impressively described the fields of activity that are being actively worked on despite adverse conditions in times of war. In addition to the three traditional areas of work - legal advice, knowledge platform for organic farming and strengthening the association structure - numerous aid measures and fundraising campaigns have been added since February, for which the project is strongly committed. Furthermore, the project actively supports various activities that make the situation of organic farms in Ukraine internationally visible (see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEjt9sSnXq8 ) and that also point out the potential of these farms, especially for reconstruction (because they basically manage without synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, which are currently difficult to obtain for conventional farmers).
In the further course of the meeting, various aspects of the further work of the project were discussed. Everyone stressed the importance of advancing the implementation of the organic farming law, further developing the digital knowledge platform on organic farming and organising targeted support for organic farming in Ukraine. Stefanie Maak, AFC, concluded the session by summarising that all participants were united by an unshakeable belief in Ukraine and a firm hope for peace.
If you would like to learn more about this project, contact our project manager Stefanie Maak (stefanie.maak [at] afci.de).