"The main thing now is to persevere, survive difficult times and achieve victory," Vyacheslav Kabanenko, deputy head of the farm "Verba"

Vyacheslav Kabanenko has been working on the land with his father since childhood. Their "Verba" farm was registered back in 1998. "When he was fifteen, he started helping his father, working on a tractor, then, when he was eighteen, he began to delve more deeply into his work: he studied how plants grow, which herbicides are needed, how to sow," says Vyacheslav.

Currently, 240 hectares are being cultivated by ​​"Verba". Corn, sunflower, and wheat are grown. Until 2024, "Verba" never used loans. "In 2021, we had a very good harvest. All warehouses were filled and waiting for good prices. And then the war began, we had all the grain in warehouses, prices immediately fell. We were forced to sell grain to ourselves at a loss. We invested money in the land, as usual. And in 2023, missile strikes destroyed 80% of our fields. In our country, losses reached more than 6.7 thousand hryvnias on just one hectare of corn. The loss for sunflower seeds was more than 3 thousand. The general picture of the economy is that we lost more than a million hryvnias, which is why there was an urgent need for lending," says Vyacheslav.

The farmer took a creative approach to the choice of whom to take a loan from - he analyzed all the available agricultural lending programs that existed on the market at that time, and chose the one he liked the most. In 2024, Verba" received a commodity loan under the "Farmer, Loan for you" program from the "Agro Arena" company, which, with the support of the USAID’s Agriculture Growing Rural Opportunities Activity (AGRO), provides commodity lending to micro, small and medium producers. "I monitored all the available information and chose the Agro Arena company, which, in my opinion, has the best service, simple and clear terms of commodity lending specifically for the farmer, and a minimal package of documents," the farmer explains his choice.

"Within the scope of this project, I purchased crop protection products - I simply submitted the required documents, everything came in agreement in 3 days, they sent the contract, signed everything without any banks or advisors. Everything is very fast and clear. The company's portfolio includes almost all producers of seeds and agricultural machinery. The most important thing is that there are no huge interest rates like at the bank, you don't have to pay every month, but only once, after harvesting," he adds.

Vyacheslav shared his positive experience with the agricultural community in his social networks, where he is an opinion leader. He chose this path — to be useful in difficult conditions, to collect and disseminate information about available resources and tools for the small farmer. "After all, we are a force only together," he is convinced.

The plans of the young farmer include gardening. "There are ideas to plant gardens, plant raspberries, cherries, cherries or blueberries. I want to go further and develop in agriculture, but the main thing now is to persevere, survive difficult times and win."

To become a participant in the commodity lending project "Farmer, loan for you", submit an application on the website or call the hotline number 0-800-307-001. All details are on the website: www:agro-arena.com.ua.