"Despite the terrible consequences of the war, Ukraine has a great potential to increase milk production and increase the concentration of livestock per hectare."
This was reported by the CEO of the Association of Milk Producers, Hanna Lavreniuk, during a presentation at the international online forum "Sustainable Cattle Breeding and Milk Production in Ukraine" as part of the SULAWE and ERASMUS+ project.
She noted that the first challenge to realizing this potential is the struggle for its own survival and the opening of sea routes to countries that are potential buyers of Ukrainian dairy products.
"For the dairy industry to survive and develop, we need a clear strategy for Ukraine's integration into the EU and global lactosphere, predictable and transparent algorithms for a program to support this transition, including financial ones. After all, the introduction of technologies and equipment for sustainable, environmentally friendly, smart milk production requires considerable investment. For a country where the agricultural sector has been exhausted by two years of heavy, exhausting war and is a key donor to the Armed Forces, this is a significant challenge,"- emphasized Hanna Lavreniuk. In addition, European integration challenges require changes in approaches to education to ensure fast and high-quality training of a new generation of personnel for dairy farms.
It should be noted that in 2021-2027, the EU plans to allocate more than €19.5 billion in support through the Just Transition Fund and attract about €30 billion in investments to support the transition of member states to climate neutral technologies.
The Director General of the Association of Milk Producers emphasized that the Association is interested in joining the transformation processes on the way to Ukraine's accession to the European Union and fulfillment of the European Green Deal 2050, so that they are as painless and efficient as possible for the Ukrainian dairy sector.
The recording of the forum is available here:
The forum was organized by the ERASMUS+ and SULAWE Sustainable Livestock and Animal Welfare Project with the support of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, the European Commission, the Association of Milk Producers, the State Institution "Scientific and Methodological Center for Higher and Professional Higher Education", and the S.Z. Gzhytskoho Lviv National University of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology.
For information:
The European Union's international technical assistance project Erasmus+ Sustainable Livestock Production and Animal Welfare (SULAWE) will run from 01.01.2023 to 31.12.2025. The objectives of the project are to study the experience of the best EU universities in training livestock specialists (emphasis on pig and cattle breeding), and to provide advanced training courses for existing farm specialists (Life Long Learning, LLL). The result is the development of changes or new introductory modules for Ukrainian universities in the areas of Sustainable Animal Farming, Animal Welfare, and Digital Farming.
Project implementers from Ukrainian universities: NUBiP, Poltava State Agrarian Academy, Lviv National University of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology im Gzhytskoho, East Ukrainian National University im Dalia.
The partners from agricultural associations are the Association of Milk Producers, the Ukrainian Pig Breeders Association and Tovarynprom.
Press service of the Association of Milk Producers