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The Article "Golos Ukrainy"

16.03.2013

The children were growing up, and Oksana Grigorash thought about the question, where to get money for giving them higher education. Many people, in particular from her native Zavallya located in Kamyanets-Podilsk district of Khmelnitsky Oblast, moved abroad to work, and people had given up the fight and lost faith... If only it would be now the opportunity to earn money at home! The Grygorash family is still young and strong. News about the creation of “Moloko-Kamyanets” agricultural productive cooperative was brought by Valentin, her husband, the driver of milktank truck. The association gives interest-free loans for purchasing the highly productive cows. Paying off should be made within six months by produced milk. The calf can be left in the farm or sold. The cooperative undertakes to sell milk, and besides that it pays five per cent more for delivered products, than other providers do. Also it provides veterinary care, covers costs for insemination of the cows, proposes oilcake and mixed fodder etc. at special prices.

Oksana was given five thousand hryvnias for purchasing the cow, which she had chosen. Oksana has more troubles with Lasunya, because she also occupies the position of the head of the kindergarten. But now she has her own milk, sour cream, cottage cheese. The loan has been paid off, and they have begun to earn for themselves. The calf has been sold.

- People are afraid of everything new for them, - says Oksana. - In Zavallya only few persons have signed the contracts for lease of the cattle. It is a pity, because there are such villages, where all the cows’ owners have joined the association. For each received liter of milk the cooperative pays two penny to the village community - so it is possible to save up funds for rural development.

In order too make sure of the benefits of this case we are going to Krushanivka, where 115 owners of cattle have joined the cooperative. While the cows have not come from the field for dinner milking, let’s talk to Svitlana Prubniak.

- I have given two cows to the cooperative, and they have not gone anywhere from my farm, - the woman is smiling. - For this year I have already received the rental fee for my two cows, and it comprises 400 UAH. If you have more cattle, you will earn more. Oksana’s sister from Nefedivsi keeps three cows, and during the year she has given eight thousand liters of milk, and has earned 16 thousand UAH. We are satisfied by everything, except for the prices: 1.8 hryvnia per liter was in August. Now there is no place to feed the cows, it is the drought, milk yields have decreased.

- Milk should be more expensive - the Head of the Village Council Ivan Positko agrees with the woman. – Do you know how much does the bottle of water cost at the store? And how much work is put into the cow by the farmer... Five years ago there were 250 head of cattle in Krushanivka, now there are only 150. If it is paid little for the milk, the cattle will continue to go under the knife.

The Head of Department on Cooperative Development Yuliya Muzhylo says: «We constantly perform the monitoring of prices. Now even inPolandhigh quality raw milk is at the level of our two hryvnias.

-         But there the farmers receive substantial subsidies from the state! - says the Head of the village.

-         The cooperative does its first steps, - says Julia Yevgenivna. – It is impossible to work effectively at the compact territory. About one thousand of peasants have joined our cooperative, and they keep more than 1500 head of the cattle. They live in Kamyanets-Podilsk, Novoushitsk, Dunayevtsi, Chemerovtsi districts of Khmelnitsky Region, and also in Kelmenets and Novosely districts of Bukovyna Region. Transport expenses are considerable. 15 loans in average for five thousand hryvnias have been given for purchasing the cattle for the year. In ten villages people received from us the forage - oilcake and corn. The interest-free loans for the purchase of milking units have been taken by three peasants, and we shall go on working in this direction. The cooperative pays for veterinary services, artificial insemination, vaccination, and compensates the costs for examination of the cattle for subclinical forms of mastitis, and also carries out the trainings on the cow’s keeping, offers to people the products of milk-processing enterprises, with which it cooperates, at the prices of the producer.

Alla Lizvinska from Nefedovtis, a social worker, manages to keep three cows and also expects the increasing of price for milk. At her family there is a problem of unavailability of own technical means for cultivating the land. They hope that the cooperative will help them with it! The family of Valentina Tolstaya has its cultivators, a lawn-mower, a cart, a sleigh, a horse, and having consulted with her family they decided to keep four cows, and now they want to give into the cooperative one more cow which has been grown by them. Valentina's husband also works with milk. As of the price they note that in the neighboring village Sokiltsi, where there is no cooperative, people are paid 1.6 UAH per liter of milk. And they have no advantages, like those that the villagers from Nefedovtsi village have from APC. Therefore, in such village distant from the center, cooperative is considered to be the correct decision. «When the whole family works in the cooperative, the benefit is felt. The son studies at theAgrarianUniversityfor the received income», - Valentina Tolstaya says.

The service is not counted to the people; the state considers them to be self-employed workers. The lawmakers should think about it.

Own vision of the development of a new form of farming exists already in the villages. “The farmers will feel the great advantage only after the high-productive cattle appears in the yard, and also the increased yields of milk”, — states Ivan Positko. He is supported in the society. “And we are working at this issue in our APC”, — Yuliya Muzhylo and Mykola Lavs’kyi say. — We have begun from that what we have. And in the future our association will have the breeding cattle, high milk yields, and, accordingly, the growth of wealth”.