CORE - Strengthening Smallholders' Agricultural Activities on Radioactive Contaminated Lands of the Bragin District

Following the 1986 Chernobyl accident, the entire territory of Bragin district was exposed to long-term radioactive contamination. Over fifty thousand hectares of land are out of use since the catastrophe, due to high levels of radioactivity. Despite the efforts of the government to take protective measures in the agricultural sector, the radiological quality of agricultural production remained problematic.Project Aims

The aim of the project was to create gradually, together with public and private, local, national and international participants, the conditions and means for the sustainable and profound development of territorial processes in which the rural population improved its living conditions through the development of private agricultural activities.

In order to involve the rural population in the process of self-rehabilitation and self-development, specific objectives of the project were:

1. To improve the radiological and general quality of agricultural products by means of introduction of new advanced methods and techniques for potato, carrot, onion, cabbage, tomato and cucumber production.
2. Raising family income by increasing the level of crop yields and promoting the development of productions with higher added value.
3. To develop and strengthen opportunities for people to fully become actors in the improvement of their living conditions, through support to local individual initiatives and through the organisation of visits and exchanges (seminars, agricultural exhibitions, exchanges of experience between villages and districts of Belarus, and in European countries).
4. To develop and strengthen relations and interrelations between the rural population and the local authorities, in order to stabilise agricultural production in private smallholdings, and create the most favourable environment for the further development of private farming.

The project was carried out according to the specifications. The results were performed in five activities related to the objectives above mentioned:

1. General analysis of the situation, selecting projects participants, and identifying with them problems for agricultural activities and possible solutions within the project.

The tasks were to analyse the situation of agricultural production in smallholdings together with local residents and local authorities, to define together the contents of the activities, to define and to mobilise local participants and groups that take part in the project.
To achieve these goals it was necessary to take the following measures:

• To question local residents in the project villages (up to 100 people).
• To organise meetings in the villages, where the methodology of the project was presented, and where the directions for project implementation were defined.
• To define conditions and means necessary for the project.
• To find and involve local partners (technical organisations) for assistance with the planned actions.

2. Practical and informative training of the local participants through experiments.

The objective for this activity was to develop practical skills among local population in the sphere of agricultural production, in order to increase family income and improve the quality of the self-produced food through individual initiatives based on experiments.
To achieve this goal the following measurers were taken:

• To find out and work out in detail the conditions and main directions of the local initiatives (plant-growing: cultivation of potatoes, carrots, onions etc.; livestock-farming: goat-breeding, milk production, beef cattle-breeding etc.).
• To provide technical assistance to the local participants in informative and practical experiments in potato and vegetable cultivation, milk and meat production.
• To involve the local participants in the process of evaluation of new agricultural methods and definition of new directions.
• To assist the local participants in the design of individual well-grounded projects and their implementation based on the acquired skills, with participation of all the local partners involved.
• Joint discussion by the parties involved about problems and ways of their solution on the local level.

3. Information supply of the local participants.

The objective was to supply the local participants with the information about modern production technologies, leading to family income increase and improvement of produce quality.
To achieve this aim the following measures were taken:

• Acquaintance with the leading agricultural technologies.
• Support for exchanges of experiences.
• Final seminars and participation of smallholders.
• Acquaintance with the conditions and organisation of agricultural producers in European countries.

4. Assistance in the creation of a local system for supporting individual initiatives.

To create and organise local support of rural residents’ individual initiatives. A system for local support, based on the technicians who possess definite skills in agricultural production management, guarantees the sustainability of the project.
To achieve this aim the following measures were taken:

• To empower local leaders, who can become technicians-consultants for supporting local initiatives.
• Training of local technicians for providing support to local initiatives (technological and methodological consultations).
• Daily support of local initiatives.

5. Methodological and technical support of the project in Bragin district.

To provide methodological and technical support to the local residents, technicians-consultants and authorities in exposure and support of the local initiatives.
To achieve this aim the following measures were taken:

• Organisation and support of the project activity in the district.
• Assistance to the local participants in defining the elements that hold back the development of their activity.
• Support to local participants for the design of their projects, taking into account the specificity of the settlement and of the district.
• Assistance in the definition, implementation and estimation of the local initiatives: study of the feasibility and economic viability of the projects, analysis of the projects to define their cost, and short-and long-term influence on family income.