Mennonite Weekly Review

WATERLOO, Ont. — Forgiveness and farming are coming together in a new Ukraine project of Mennonite Economic Development Associates.

Fred Wall at his grandfather’s guesthouse on what used to be his family’s ancestral farm in Ukraine. — Photo provided

With support from the Canadian International Development Agency, it aims to help smallholder farmers in areas once populated by Mennonites who fled to Canada after the Bolshevik Revolution.

The five-year, $10 million project will help 5,000 smallholder farmers in the Zaporozhye and Crimea regions improve production of table grapes, potatoes, berries, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and medicinal herbs.

Land owned by Mennonites and others was collectivized after the revolution of 1917. When the Soviet era ended and Ukraine achieved its independence in 1991, the land was returned to current occupants in small plots of 10 to 25 acres.

“While it is highly fertile, much of it is poorly cultivated, or not at all,” said Fred Wall of Winnipeg, Man., a MEDA volunteer who was part of the project’s exploratory mission.

“Under collectivization the operators were supplied with equipment and inputs. What was missing was the kind of entrepreneurial motivation that we in the West value. Now they have much motivation, but they need help with things like credit and market development.”

Both of Wall’s parents were born into Mennonite families in Ukraine and immigrated to Canada in 1924 after they lost their farms.

“That land is now farmed by Ukrainians whose parents and grandparents were neighbors of our ancestral family,” he said. “But the agricultural scene today is dramatically different than when my family left.”

Some farmers have found ways to move forward, but many are worse off than before.

“Ukraine is not as poor as some other countries where MEDA works, but it suffers great economic disparity, with farm income in the eastern regions far below the national average,” Wall said.