Throughout Russia

Russian Ministry of Agriculture, Partner: US NGO, Centre for Citizen Initiatives (CCI) in San Francisco

In December 1999 the Russian Ministry of Agriculture established a Division of Sustainable Agriculture Extension Service (DSAES) within the Agriculture Ministry, with the responsibility to create 51 newly formed sustainable agriculture extension centres across the country, with the support from the Centre for Citizen Initiatives (CCI a US NGO).

CCI realized the plight of the Russian farmers when in 1993 it sent two US organic farmers, to Russia to give lectures, workshops, and demonstrations on sustainable agriculture to farmers in the St. Petersburg and Moscow areas. The information gathered during this trip indicated that food production had fallen 40 percent since the Soviet days, making the cost of food very high on the new free market. Some 50 percent of Russians have access to dachas (small plots of land given to citizens), which produced 30 percent of the total food grown in the country and 80 percent of the vegetables.

It also was learned that since the break up of the Soviet Union, chemical fertilizers and pesticides had become both scarce and expensive. Russian fertilizer plants were working at 30-35 percent of capacity and exported most of what they produced. Many of the huge state farms had gone bankrupt and parcelled their land to the new private farmers. Farmers and gardeners were left with no fertilizers or pesticides and no idea of how to grow without them. Information on alternative approaches to agriculture did not exist and was not available in Soviet times.

The Sergiev Posad Regional Agriculture Administrator asked the American visiting farmers if they could help the farmers in his region. Upon their return to the US, the two farmers contacted CCI to see if CCI was interested in helping. CCI decided to establish an Ag Initiative and was committed to transferring sustainable agriculture information to Russian farmers via a sustainable agriculture extension centre in Sergiev Posad.

In 1997 the Russian Ministry of Agriculture, in recognition of the experimental success of DSAES, decided to establish 11 Sustainable Agriculture Extension Centres. Funding from the Ministry was in-kind. Funding from CCI came through private donations, foundations, and a small grant from USAID to train the directors of the new extension centres at SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education) Centres in the US. Salaries for CCI Ag Initiative's Moscow and Sergiev Posad staff were included in CCI's funding support.

• The effort launched a total of 51 Sustainable Agriculture Extension Centres modelled after the US SARE Centres.

• Collaborative links with 287 Agriculture Colleges involved and are starting to put in place a four-year curriculum on sustainable agriculture.

• Close collaboration between the Russian Ministry of Agriculture and USDA to further the goals of sustainable agriculture in Russia.

In just a brief time the Russians have put in place a nationwide information system that will advise farmers on sustainable agriculture methods. They have done this on their own initiative, with little capital, and with support from CCI. In this time of economic crisis this demonstrates real commitment on the part of the Russians.

He also is Co-Chairman of the US/Russian Bilateral Commission Agriculture Committee's Working Group for Education, Extension and Research.

Tel. (095) 207 8966, 207 6356
Fax (095) 207 6776
Email: "International Projects" dspe@orc.ru

Webpage: www.igc.org/cci