Field trip and Workshops devoted to clusters development and the role of universities in it organized in Ukraine on the 26th – 28th of October 2022.

Tuesday, 26.10.2021

Field trip organized by Food Valley

At 9.30 it was organized meeting at the Scientific and methodologic center of higher and vocational education (Kyiv, str. Smilyanska, 11). All participants shortly presented themselves and their organizations. It was very useful, because all participants saw each other for the first time, despite the fact that the project has been working for 2 years.

After the meeting, all participants went to the village of Ivky, Kyiv region. There we visited the farm "Good Farm" and the Cheese Museum. After the tour of the farm there was a cheese tasting.

The farm adheres to the full production cycle. Goats grow only on real milk. No substitutes and powders. Here they sow and collect fodder for the whole year by themselves. Make a useful diet for goats. On the farm automatic milking with fast cooling, providing milk of extra class of the European level. Author's cheeses are cooked, gaining experience from the best cheesemakers in France, Germany, Holland, Georgia and Cyprus

The farm not only breeds goats, but also makes a variety of products : yogurt, kefir, cheese, sour cream, dairy products for children. The farm manager gave us a tasting of cheeses made on the farm. All the participants of the event liked the production very much. There is also a Cheese Museum on the farm. The museum was created to promote cheese in Ukraine, as the cheese culture in Ukraine is not yet developed. Therefore, the popularity of the Museum is remarkable. But the main purpose of this establishment was to unite producers. After all, the Association of Cheesemakers can offer retail chains not only a much wider range, but also set their own conditions, jointly solve problems, organize training, and, ultimately, lobby their interests in state institutions. Also, the union of manufacturers "SHE FARM" was presented here. The participants of the event were offered a tasting of craft products from this union.

At the end of the day we visited another family business that makes Ukrainian carpets. These carpets are handmade by Ukrainian craftswomen, which aims to show the national color of carpet making and preserve ancient traditions. The participants of the event had the opportunity not only to hear the history of the enterprise, to see how carpets are made by hand, but also to try to do it themselves.

Wednesday, 27.10.202

Workshop devoted to clusters development and the role of universities

The first day of the workshop was organized in Bila Tserkva National Agrarian University. The day was opened by the welcome speech of the rector of BNAU Olena Shust. After that, the workshop participants were greeted by the project coordinator Irma Servaite and the project manager of BNAU Olga Varchenko.

The first half of the day was online, as not all participants were able to come to Ukraine due to the pandemic.

The first presentation was “Urban Agriculture: Cities and Universities as Living Laboratories of Food System Transformation” presented by Uyam Fatiha Buharta from UVA, Spain. She made her report online.

Next was the online presentation "Individual differences in the team. Opportunities and obstacles in project implementation", presented by Olga Grabowska, PULS, Poland.

And completed a series of online presentations by Vincenzo Fucilli and Arcangelo Siron (Bari, Italy) with the presentation "Farm clustering: the example of southeastern Italy".

All presentations were very interesting, caused a number of questions and discussions.

The second half of the day was devoted to a visit to the “Skvira Rybprom” fishing enterprise. This is a full-fledged fishery, which has the status of "Breeding breeder". Here are bred fish such as Grass carp, Scaly carp, Small-scale carp. The company has several types of ponds: spawning, where they spend spawning of different breeds of fish in natural conditions; Summer-uterine growths for Growing fish planting material, Feeding for Growing commercial fish and Wintering for wintering of fish. The company is not only engaged in practical and commercial activities, but also scientific. Their partners are NUBiP of Ukraine, Bila Tserkva National Agrarian University, the Institute of Fisheries of Ukraine and National Shevchenko University.

Thursday, 28.10.2021

Workshop devoted to clusters development and the role of universities

This day was opened be the presentation-training “From applied research to innovation and entrepreneurship. How to implement it?” of Giedrius Gecevičius from KUAS, Lithuania.  he speaker's speech had not only a theoretical part, but also elements of practical training. It was group work. All participants were divided into groups, each group had its own expert - a representative of the European University. Each group had to find a solution to the problem and present this solution to the audience. Everyone liked this kind of presentation, because it was both useful and interesting.

The presentation of Peter Barsoni, UD, Hungary "New opportunities in pond fish farming" was very interesting too. It was very interesting to hear about pond fish farming in Hungary especially after the visit to “Skvira Rybprom” fishing enterprise.

Also on this day was the presentation of  Veronica Hager from UCAEP, Austria "Competence orientation in the development of training programmes and courses based on the concept of "green pedagogy, " and the presentation " Higher Education Impact Assessment” of  Noureddin Driouech from CIHEAM Bari,  Italy. In the afternoon, all participants visited the aquaculture laboratory and the Expertise  Center of BNAU.

We finally got the opportunity to see the university, the faculty where the project will be implemented and meet the people who create the Expertise  Center. In addition, we saw equipment purchased under the UniClaD project, which is already used by both students and teachers.

The presentation “Clusters and Practical Experiences in Ecotourism, Forest and Outdoor Activities”, presented by Georg Wiesinger, (BAB, Austria) has finished the program of the workshop.  In his presentation he told which organizations are involved in cluster, what kind of activities do they propose. It was useful to know that they have programs for people with special needs (it isn’t developed in Ukraine). The forest kindergarten is a new and good idea for us too. It was interesting to learn about the medical aspect of the agritourism cluster (Forest Therapy for Mental and Psychiatric Clients, Drug Addicts).