Grainswest - Winter 2023

Winter 2023 Grains West 38 FEATURE such as night vision goggles for Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces and to pay for supportive technologies such as satellite imagery, which has agricultural and defensive applications. “My hood is the agriculture hood. When the war started, I turned to the agricultural community and said, ‘I have contacts in Ukraine. I cannot give you a tax receipt, but I can assure you whatever we buy will go straight into the hands of people I know and trust, and it’ll make a difference.’ The outpouring from the community—farmers and agricultural professionals—has been incredible. All sorts of people donated money. “For me, it was about getting their country back,” said Saik. “I wanted every cent to go to help people on the ground, and I didn’t want any delay. The invasion happened February 24 and we were deploying capital by mid-March.” One of Saik’s biggest concerns is that agricultural fields be demined. “The numbers are astronomical,” he said. “I’m not sure the degree to which an individual can make a difference there but I’m aware of certain initiatives and technologies that might happen. If they do, it would be an opportunity for us to raise some more money and make a difference on the ground again.” Saik isn’t the only ringleader to drum up support. Early in the war, Vancouver- based EarthDaily Analytics launched a support coalition that has today grown to offer wide-reaching impact in Ukraine. The data processing and analytics company and its agricultural subsidiary EarthDaily Agro use satellite imagery and data analysis tools to support predictive, precision farming around the world. In Ukraine, EarthDaily has partnered with Chernihiv-based AgriLab, an agronomy and precision farming company. When the war began, EarthDaily immediately offered its analytics and geosys platform services free of charge to existing customers in Ukraine, and soon after, to all its farmers. To date, hundreds of farmers have signed up and the platform is now used to manage nearly a million hectares of Ukrainian farmland. “This is about purpose over profit,” said Andrew Mullin, EarthDaily Agro vice-president of marketing and lead on EarthDaily Analytics’ efforts in Ukraine. The company realized its existing connections uniquely positioned it to quickly deliver help where it was needed. It reached out to additional agricultural companies to build the Support Ukrainian Farmers Coalition. It has grown into a loose group of corporate, government and NGO partners that provide support to Ukraine’s agriculture sector. “We’re a relatively small company but what we’ve been able to leverage is that we were on the ground in Ukraine before the war. We had relationships with the farming community, both large businesses like Kernel and small farms through AgriLab,” said Mullin. “Where we’re adding the most value is in offering a local connection as a way for people to get involved on the ground.” “There are a lot of people and organizations who want to help but they’re just sort of daunted by the premise of setting up their own organization,” said Bryan Degnan, managing director of The IGB Group which supports EarthDaily in its Ukraine- related efforts. “We knew there was a well of goodwill. We’ve tried to figure out ways to pull people together and to point people in the right direction so that goodwill can get to where it is intended and people don’t just throw up their hands and say, ‘It’s too hard, I can’t do it.’” Rather than control or oversee individual projects, the Coalition acts as a sounding board, support mechanism and central hub to expedite and enable aid efforts. Projects initiated by Coalition members include everything from EarthDaily’s agronomy support to in-kind supports of seed, fertilizer, fuel and equipment repair. “There are so many ways businesses have jumped on board to help, and it’s the sum of all those things that will support Ukraine’s farmers now and into the future,” said Mullin. The Coalition is now at work on a series of group initiatives. They include the construction of a system to manage corporate and individual cash donations, a governance body and procedures to handle donations and a farmer-to-farmer matching program that will allow the global agriculture community to support individual Ukrainian farmers. World to Rebuild Rural Ukraine (WRRU) is another initiative created in the early days of the war to support rural Ukrainians. Based in Ukraine, WRRU aims to rebuild its agriculture industry one family farm at a time with funds raised internationally. A pile of munitions awaits disposal on a farm in Chernihivska Oblast.