Green Farming: PROGRESS Project Presented Its Demonstration Concept

Cli­mate change is already affect­ing the Ukrain­ian agri­cul­tur­al sec­tor — espe­cial­ly fruit, nuts and berry pro­duc­tion. Farm­ers face droughts, heavy rains, water short­ages, and shifts in sea­son­al cycles. In these con­di­tions, it is impor­tant to find solu­tions that improve cli­mate resilience, eco­nom­ic effi­cien­cy, and envi­ron­men­tal respon­si­bil­i­ty.

That is why the PROGRESS project team pre­sent­ed the con­cept of Green Farm­ing demon­stra­tion projects — an inno­v­a­tive approach to trans­form­ing Ukrain­ian hor­ti­cul­ture. The project brings togeth­er farm­ers, sci­en­tists, banks, and inter­na­tion­al part­ners to test and scale up solu­tions that actu­al­ly work — from agri­v­oltaics and hydro­pon­ics to new mar­ket­ing and financ­ing mod­els.

On July 30, 2025, at the Ukrain­ian Cli­mate Office in Kyiv, the PROGRESS team pre­sent­ed the Green Farm­ing ini­tia­tive — a sup­port sys­tem for inno­v­a­tive prac­tices in the fruit and berry sec­tor through demon­stra­tion projects, train­ing, and financ­ing.

The project “Pro­mot­ing Green Deal Readi­ness in East­ern Part­ner­ship Coun­tries (PROGRESS)” is imple­ment­ed in Ukraine by a con­sor­tium led by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Inter­na­tionale Zusam­me­nar­beit (GIZ) GmbH, in part­ner­ship with the OECD, the Insti­tute for Eco­nom­ics and Fore­cast­ing of the Nation­al Acad­e­my of Sci­ences of Ukraine, REC Cau­ca­sus, and the Euro­pean Busi­ness Asso­ci­a­tion of Moldo­va (EBA Moldo­va), com­mis­sioned by the Ger­man Gov­ern­ment.

What was presented during the meeting?

- A cat­a­logue of 35 inno­v­a­tive prac­tices — in the areas of cul­ti­va­tion, pro­cess­ing, and sales of fruit, nuts and berry prod­ucts. The prac­tices are divid­ed into three lev­els of pri­or­i­ty (high, medi­um, basic), based on cli­mate adap­ta­tion poten­tial, eco­nom­ic via­bil­i­ty, and scal­a­bil­i­ty.
— A scor­ing sys­tem for project appli­ca­tions — future appli­cants will receive points depend­ing on the cho­sen prac­tices, expect­ed ben­e­fits for busi­ness and com­mu­ni­ties, social pro­file (vet­er­ans, women, inter­nal­ly dis­placed per­sons), and whether they are locat­ed in pri­or­i­ty regions.
— A finan­cial mod­el of “green loan” — a spe­cial tool to sup­port the imple­men­ta­tion of demon­stra­tion projects, help­ing farm­ers access afford­able financ­ing for cli­mate-resilient solu­tions.
— A plan to devel­op train­ing mod­ules for farm­ers based on prac­ti­cal case stud­ies.

What technologies may be used in demo projects?

Poten­tial solu­tions with high poten­tial for pilot imple­men­ta­tion include:
• agri­v­oltaics
• pre­ci­sion and drip irri­ga­tion
• anti-hail and anti-rain film
• hydro­pon­ics
• geo­des­ic dome green­hous­es
• green ammo­nia
• cir­cu­lar water use in pro­cess­ing
• new mar­ket­ing and brand­ing mod­els

Who joined the discussion?

More than 50 par­tic­i­pants joined the event online and offline. Among the part­ners:
• Nation­al Uni­ver­si­ty of Life and Envi­ron­men­tal Sci­ences of Ukraine
• Busi­ness  Devel­op­ment Fund
• Par­tial Cred­it Guar­an­tee Fund in Agri­cul­ture
• Oschad­bank, Cred­itwest Bank
• Asso­ci­a­tion of Ukrain­ian BanksIn­de­pen­dent Asso­ci­a­tion of the Banks of Ukraine
• UKRSADPROM Asso­ci­a­tion
• NGO “Inter­na­tion­al Foun­da­tion of Devel­op­ment”

What’s next?

The next step is the launch of an open call for farm­ers. After the announce­ment, par­tic­i­pants will be able to apply to imple­ment one or more inno­v­a­tive prac­tices from the cat­a­logue. Select­ed projects will receive fund­ing in the form of a “green loan” — a spe­cial pro­gram that helps cov­er the costs of cli­mate-smart solu­tions. These demon­stra­tion projects will also serve as exam­ples for future train­ing pro­grams, finan­cial mod­els, and agri­cul­tur­al pol­i­cy rec­om­men­da­tions.

The region­al project “Pro­mot­ing Green Deal Readi­ness in the East­ern Part­ner­ship Coun­tries” (PROGRESS), which is fund­ed by the Fed­er­al Min­istry for the Envi­ron­ment, Cli­mate Action, Nature Con­ser­va­tion and Nuclear Safe­ty of Ger­many (BMUKN) and imple­ment­ed in Ukraine by a con­sor­tium of orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Inter­na­tionale  Zusam­me­nar­beit (GIZ), the Organ­i­sa­tion for Eco­nom­ic Co-oper­a­tion and Devel­op­ment (OECD), and the Insti­tute for Eco­nom­ics and Fore­cast­ing of the Nation­al Acad­e­my of Sci­ences of Ukraine.