The Ukrainian Carpathians on the way to the EU: people and cases
Vasyl Stefurak has lived with sheep from the day he was born. However, back in his childhood, it was just a few dozen sheep that the family kept and the children were taught to take care of. Today, it is a fairly big business in Ivano-Frankivsk region: a breeding flock, new meat breeds, and lucrative contracts with lamb connoisseurs from Asian countries.
The Russian invasion destroyed not only the cities in the East but also the sheep business in the west of our country. After the first missile attacks on sheep hubs in Podillia, it became clear that the hubs would not survive in such conditions and would need to be moved further west, beyond the mountains. The sheep that were kept before being shipped to customers in central Ukraine were dying from stress, not even from injuries. So, Vasyl moved part of his sheep business to the Transcarpathia. He hopes that things will go better, as well as cooperation with his neighbours – Romanian sheep farmers are developing their sheep business powerfully and are ready to cooperate with Ukrainian sheep farmers. Naturally, based on common rules.
Vasyl Stefurak is the head of the Ukrainian Sheep Breeders Association. That is, he is responsible not only for his flock, contracts and sales, but also for small and medium-sized farms that have fewer sheep, fewer opportunities for development and survival, and are unable to engage in breeding work and still need certain animals depending on the focus of the farm.
«We have bred two dual-purpose breeds of sheep – meat and milk breed’s well as milk and meat breeds breed – and provide small farms with exactly the animals they need. In general, we have to find and offer simple solutions to the sheep farmer: just an electric shepherd or milking equipment, comprehensible financial support,» says Vasyl. «We should not pass on all the complex political and economic decisions to the farmers, they are not supposed to handle them.»
Vasyl Stefurak is well known in the corridors of power in Kyiv, including the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, because «simple» solutions for sheep farmers are obtained in complicated ways there.
«Sheep massage the earth,» Vasyl reiterates, «they keep the meadows, preserve the mountains. And they even help modern businesses save money. For example, they mow the grass between the panels of a solar power plant, so the owner, who used to spend a lot of money on mowing the grass every year, now simply invites the sheep to help.»
Such sheep innovations are worth studying and promoting. For example, through tourism. Offering tourists to stay in farmsteads and involving them in the farm. Teaching children sheep farming – we used to have sheep farming schools, today we don’t, yet we need them. By the way, in neighbouring countries, pastoral schools are already developing on a modern basis.
This article prepared in the frame of “Green and inclusive agricultural policy – steps towards” project implementing by ICO IC «Green Dossier» with the support of the European Union and the International Renaissance Foundation within the framework «European Renaissance of Ukraine» project.
Its content is the exclusive responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union and the International Renaissance Foundation.
