Raiffeisen Bank Aval and Agrohub organize regional workshops "Innovations in Ukrainian Agro"

On June 13, 2019, a workshop "Innovations in the Ukrainian Agro" took place in Poltava.

Poltava became the first region to host an agro-workshop. The materials presented at the workshop were adapted to the territorial characteristics of the participants and to the agrarian economy with a medium-sized land bank.

Ruslan Spivak, Director of Corporate Products and Partnership, Raiffeisen Bank Aval: «Companies need to invest human and financial capital in new directions in order to succeed and to increase their efficiency. Besides classical banking products, Raiffeisen Bank Aval pays great attention to non-financial services for the agro-sector with the help of leading industry experts. Our partnership with AgroHab is just a confirmation that we provide our clients with access to quality information in the field of innovation, moreover, participants have the opportunity to get acquainted with the demo zone, where Ukrainian startups offer their innovative solutions that can be useful».

Participant of the workshop Alexander Pirozhenko, deputy director of the company Agris: « The workshop showed the structure of improving the efficiency of agri-business through technology, to draw attention to what is the solution that analysts consider expedient now and in the long run. I noticed two latest technologies as land bank management and differentiated fertilization. In order to successfully implement innovation, in my opinion, there is a need for closer communication of farmers and developers, as it happened at the workshop».

Agrarians also learned about the novelties already introduced by Frendt, QRSmarty, Skok, Taranis, Farmet and AgroReservisprilad. Sergiy Skok, director of SkokAgro, spoke about optimizing the costs of soil analysis. To do this, he showed how data manipulation occurs when conducting chemical tests. Vitali Schubransky, founder and director of Frendt, has demonstrated ways to use data in a single system to improve plant crop efficiency. Oleg Prykhodko, coordinator of the company Farmet a.s in Ukraine and Moldova, offered a different look at the techniques for soil tillage and fertilization. He showed technological solutions, such as complex liquid fertilizers or a combination of several operations in one pass of the unit along the field. Oleksandr Horpinchenko, Technical Director of Agroreservisprilad LLC, supported this approach. He showed how the overall cost system, broken up into position, would help farmers "see" fuel costs. Indeed, these daily purchases are often deprived of particular attention, although they account for 10-15% of the total cost of the project.

Yulia Poroshenko, founder of Agrohub platform: «Agrocompanies are aware that technologies increase their efficiency. However, with changing resources, business is always looking for a return on investment. Going out to talk with farmers, we set the task of giving them those technologies that invest quickly and show which developments can be implemented in the future. In addition, of course, get feedback. From the correct assessment of the situation and the formation of expectations - both farmers and technology developers - the whole result depends».

The material for the workshops was collected in 2018 as part of the research project "Innovative Priorities of the Agrarian Sector of Ukraine" by the Agrohub platform and Raiffeisen Bank Aval. The survey is based on 150 interviews with management and specialists from 20 leading agribusinesses with a land bank of 5 to 500 000 hectares. As a result, more than 50 examples of agrarian innovations and 135 technological solutions available to Ukrainian farmers were collected. The matrix maturity technique was also developed, reflecting the evolutionary process of innovation development in agrocompanies.

The next workshop on "Innovations in Ukrainian Agro" will be held in Cherkassy on June 19, 2019. Venue: Hotel "Apelsin", Cherkasy, str. Verhnia Horova, 145.

Participation in the workshop is free for clients of Raiffeisen Bank Aval.