WHAT A winter for Scottish growers!

The worst conditions for nearly 50 years with conditions colder than Eastern Europe for a spell!

Just like Eastern Europe, the snow cover has helped both Scottish and Eastern crops by protecting them from temperatures of -20°C, and they have emerged in Scotland sound, if bedraggled, from beneath their snowy mantle.

Crops in the East are still well covered! More worrying in the Ukraine was the potential loss of up to 30% of their oilseed rape crop from dry seedbeds at establishment!

Now Eastern Europe is, depending on your prejudice or point of view, a romantic, intriguing far flung outpost – or a dismal, threatening corrupt place where angels fear to tread!

The truth, as always, is somewhere in between! We live in a global market and hopefully an insight into Eastern Europe and how it compares and contrasts with this fair isle will both inform and entertain.

This is the first of a regular column to give an insight into farming activities in Eastern Europe focusing in future articles on Scottish farms in Ukraine and Poland.

Pioneering experience gained from over 15 years farming experience in Poland, in the difficult transition from post communism to EU membership, led UK farmers to look further East in search of the fabled fertile chernozem soils of Ukraine.

We had developed a proven farming model which was succesful in Poland, but land availabilty there was becoming tighter and more expensive as well as in the UK. Lessons had been learnt the hard way and it was now the time to ‘leverage’ that experience over a wider scale in the light of global food security issues.

Keeping a weather eye politically on Ukraine, it had never felt right to proceed. But the potential was clear to the experienced eye and mind. Following the Orange Revolution, the political landscape changed and the climate was felt to be right to dip a toe (or potato heel!) into unknown water.

The recent election of Yanukovich is likely to mean little change for businesses as all parties realise the importance of inward agricultural investment. After all, the Ukrainian flag of a blue horizontal band above a golden yellow band below represent blue sky and golden wheat fields – not many nations have farming on the flag!

A careful examination of both climate, land availability and soils, led Western Ukraine to look the most attractive possibility. In addition, it was only 50km from the Polish border (closer to drive a tractor back if things went wrong!) on the gateway between EU and the East.

The attractions were based on availability of good quality land to lease. Following independence from Russian rule, the old, large collective farms (often over 50,000 acres in size) were broken up into one to five-acre blocks and ownership was granted to the local villagers individually.

This fragmentation was common in Eastern Europe and led to a massive loss of production and efficiency as the economies of scale were lost at a stroke! Worse than this the lack of capital for seed and other inputs led to most of the land lapsing into massive areas of ill kempt unproductive fallow.

I recall, in the summer of 2006, on one of my early visits, driving along dusty tracks to a 400-acre field in the area with a former ‘collective’ agronomist. This had been one of the most productive fields for sugar beet and potatoes in the region often winning prizes for its yields!

A sorry sight met our eyes, with a couch and thistle-infested field, plus pine seedlings encroaching from the forest at the margins. Four lonely threadbare horses gently grazed the meagre sward after 12 years of neglect.

Any local cultivating was driven by horsepower! What a desperate turnaround with national food shortages commonplace!

At that point, it was clear that something needed to be done, particularly in the light of the poverty in the local villages – with up to 90% unemployment and a shortage of local food stocks following droughted harvests in the East.

Scots have a long proud history of pioneering in Eastern Europe over the last two centuries. So, there was an opportunity for successful Scottish investment based on good quality potato land with 750mm of rainfall at around £15/acre rent and a willing workforce with low costs.

The largest task was to develop good relations with local communities, who were initially quite understandably distrustful, as land is extremely close to the Ukrainian soul. It has been fiercely fought over through the centuries and the memories are still vivid of the loss of 6m countrymen and women in the 1930s due to famine!

Agricultural land in Ukraine cannot be bought or sold presently due to a moratorium, so leasing is the only option. The amalgamation of all these acre plots into a manageable area, with thousands of individual long lease agreements is an immense task, but one which would also provide a barrier to entry for others.

One of the most important first steps once soils and cropping were made was selection of crop varieties. This was very difficult as the genetics of local varieties are often poor.

We take for granted the excellent plant breeding and variety testing procedures in the UK and our independent Recommended Lists. It is only when you work in areas where none of this support is available, that you realise just how important a jewel in the crown of Scottish agriculture these fundamental tools really are.

There is no doubt that the strong reputation of the Scots for honesty, hardwork and financial acumen (this was pre-credit crunch!) helped a great deal in our negotiations. It would have been a different picture for German or Russian investors!

It is worth noting at this time the reverence that our good bard Robbie Burns is held in the region. I was amazed that locals can recite many Burns poems in fluent Russian! There are more ties that bind us than keep us apart I have learnt!