Wartime Wheat: Supporting Farmers and Food Security in Ukraine

Feb 27, 2023

While his sons are serving in the Ukrainian Army to defend their country, Volodymyr Tsikhotskyi, a farmer with 35 years of agribusiness experience, is doing his part to contribute to the country’s food security. Local authorities in Lviv Oblast in western Ukraine asked farmers there to expand production to more hectares, including land that was not arable before the war.

Volodymyr was on board immediately, decisive in his support of this initiative. “Our fellow farmers in the east [of Ukraine] cannot sow. So, we must do that here. We must support Ukraine’s economy,” he explained.

Credit unions provide affordable financing for farmers in Ukraine

Affordable finance is key for every agribusiness’s operations and growth. Micro-, small- and medium-sized agricultural enterprises (MSMEs) in Ukraine are rarely the target audience for commercial banks, as their needs are too small-scale. So, their choice of a financial partner is often a credit union. Cooperative finance is also more beneficial for agricultural MSMEs, as they receive better and more loyal customer service, individualized attention and less bureaucratic lending procedures.

In 2016, USAID launched the Credit for Agriculture Producers (CAP) Project, implemented by World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU). This project aims to increase access to finance for rural and agricultural micro- and small businesses through credit unions and to boost rural and community-based economic growth and resilience in Ukraine.

Five years later, in 2021, USAID and Worldwide Foundation for Credit Unions launched a $1 million Liquidity Fund to provide additional liquidity to the Ukrainian credit union sector to ensure sufficient resources for agricultural micro and small business lending through credit unions. The CAP Project is able to leverage this fund to ensure the availability of financing for Ukrainian farmers like Volodymyr Tsikhotskyi. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, this Liquidity Fund has helped 504 farmers from different regions of Ukraine receive loans totaling over $1 million.

Crucial financing for agribusinesses

Volodymyr, Nazariy and Vasyl are just three examples out of hundreds. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, the USAID/WOCCU CAP Project has been responsive to market needs, working with credit unions, their national associations and the market regulator to ensure that credit unions can remain open and continue to serve their communities, especially through access to agricultural loans. This financing has been crucial to allow them to continue their agribusinesses and support local food security. The CAP Project has recently been extended through September 2024 to further amplify the impact.

Click here to see more...

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.