TGS business supported 60 farmers in 2023. We were involved in an aid project and deliverd seeds. We kept contact with the farmers and talked to them about the situation: Farmer Yevgen (33) runs his hand through the mountain of grains that has been in storage since the day before. “Look, fresh soy,” he says affectionately. Soy was considered the ideal crop this season. In the spring, a new Russian invasion threatened the border, fifty kilometers away. “When we sowed, we didn’t know if we would be able to harvest. If the Russians come, we will lose our investment.

Soybeans don’t yield much, but at least they don’t need much fertilizer or insecticide. The harvest was disappointing, but that was mainly due to the lack of rain. “We feared war, but water shortages turned out to be a bigger problem.” Now, just after the harvest, the beans don’t yield much. In January, he will try to sell his products.

Jevgen was a refugee once
War was not new to Yevgen. In 2014, when he was 23, he fled the eastern Ukrainian province of Luhansk, his native region, where there was already war — albeit on a smaller scale than now. “I had to leave everything behind: my job, my house and my parents.” He had work experience in construction, but his friends convinced him to try farming. As is the case in Ukraine, he leases plots of land from the residents. He grows his crops there: corn, sunflowers and soybeans. Over the past decade, his company has grown to 120 hectares of land around the village of Nedryhajliv. After the invasion in February 2022, Russian tanks were already driving through the main street. Fortunately, they retreated.

Nevertheless, the war is hard on the farmers. The sowing, planting, fertilizing and harvesting fell mainly on Yevgen’s shoulders this season. The majority of his permanent and seasonal workers were called up for the army: of his three ‘tractor drivers’, one is now fighting in the border region; another is at the front in the Donbas. Villagers are popular for recruitment, Yevgen knows: they are strong, handy and often know how to handle machines well. “We are losing our workforce. That makes the situation difficult.” Not to mention the risk that the farmer himself will have to join the army.”Fortunately, everyone understands that someone has to be left to produce food.

Not only a farmer, but also a baker
Since the invasion, Yevgen has also been a linchpin in local humanitarian work. “I am religious. I see it as my duty not only to do business, but also to help people,” he explains. For example, he recently set up a bakery. He distributes freshly baked bread to residents of the border region. The need is great: there is no work, and many houses have been destroyed. Most of the bakery’s employees are refugees from that region themselves. By working in the bakery, the farmer gives them the opportunity to rebuild their lives.”Having been a refugee myself, I know what it’s like to start over somewhere else with only one bag of belongings.

Technical challenges
As far as farming is concerned, the challenge lies in the technology, Yevgen believes. Like most farmers in the area, he only owns a few old tractors; during harvest time, he rents the necessary machines and works with his own old ploughs — which is actually no longer possible with too few men. He shows a video of his tractor driver repairing the wheel of his plough in the middle of a field. “This is extremely physically demanding work. If you are not used to it, you will not be able to do it.” He sees the solution in more powerful and modern agricultural machinery, so that he can sow and harvest more efficiently with fewer people. Then women, who are exempt from military service, can also help out.”My wife dreams of driving a combiner.

He doesn’t dare take out a loan to buy machinery because of the war. “Suppose I have to flee. How will I pay off that loan?” He knows fellow farmers who have been struggling for years for equipment that has been destroyed through no fault of their own, as a result of the war.

Second-hand agricultural machinery from the Netherlands would be a solution: even though they are cast-offs, Ukrainians know how to repair technology, Yevgen thinks. “We will be able to get started with that.” The generator on his farm, which was donated to him, is also used pragmatically. As soon as the power goes out, that one generator keeps the pumps of the water supply of the entire village going. “I don’t really want to think about winter yet. Let’s hope it will be a mild winter.