Additional equipment at the right moment: how Yakush-Agro LLC coped with the sowing season

The word "grant" appears more and more often in business and community discussions today. But behind it lies not only funding, but also real changes. We tell the story of a company that used grant support to upgrade its machinery park and at the same time opened up new opportunities for small farmers. This is an example of how partnership and cooperation can turn ideas into tangible results. 

Yurii Karachun has headed and co-owned Yakush-Agro LLC in the Khmelnytskyi region since 2014. It is here, on 307 hectares of land, that the farm grows grain and industrial crops. The enterprise has its own fleet of agricultural machinery — three tractors, a seeder, a disc harrow, a harrow hitch, rollers, and other equipment. In 2026, Yakush-Agro purchased another tractor under the state program "Affordable Loans 5-7-9% ".

However, even having one's own equipment does not always allow a farm to carry out all field work independently and on time. The full-scale war complicated the enterprise's work: sales markets changed, resources and logistics became more expensive, and some employees were mobilized. Under such conditions, it is especially important for the farm to use available resources as efficiently as possible and not to lose time during key stages of field work.

This year, the weather was an additional challenge. Due to adverse weather conditions, the optimal time frame for sowing narrowed significantly, and the farm needed to carry out work on large areas in the shortest possible time. Its own resources were insufficient for this, and a delay in sowing could have affected the future harvest.

A long-term partner of the farm, PE "Express", helped solve the problem by providing soybean sowing services on an area of 30 hectares. With the support of the US Government under the AGRO Program, Yakush-Agro received these services at a reduced rate. This allowed the farm to complete the necessary field work on time and reduce expenses by approximately 42,000 UAH.

For the farm, this became more than just solving an urgent production task. Yakush-Agro directed the freed-up funds to repay the loan and increase employees' wages.

"In conditions of changeable weather, decisions need to be made quickly. When there is a reliable partner nearby who can provide additional equipment at the right moment, it is much easier to work," says Yurii Karachun.

The next step for Yakush-Agro is to further strengthen its own technical base. In the near future, Yurii plans to purchase a row-crop seeder so that the farm can perform even more field operations independently and be less dependent on equipment and labor shortages during peak periods.

The services that Yakush-Agro used are part of broader support for agricultural producers. PE "Express" provides small and medium-sized farms with harvesting, plowing, deep ripping, and sowing services at reduced rates. As of today, about 50 small and medium-sized farms have used them, and the total area covered by these services has exceeded 4,500 hectares.