Tropentag, September 18 - 20, 2019 in Kassel "Filling gaps and removing traps for sustainable resources development"

Ukrainian Farm Management Data Network - Practice Oriented Approach for an Innovative Practice Oriented Training of Students

¹National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Cybernetics Economic, Ukraine
²Sumy National Agrarian Uiversity, Economics, Ukraine
³National University of Water and Environmental Engineering, Dept. of Agrochemistry, Soil Science and Agriculture, Ukraine
⁴Mykolayiv National Agrarian University, Economy of Enterprises, Ukraine
⁵Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences, Fac. of Agriculture, Food, and Nutrition, Germany

Abstract

Experiences of the last years showed, that students of agrarian universities need more practice oriented training to be well prepared for their future job demands. Four leading agrarian universities of Ukraine, NULES, SNAU, MNAU and NUWEE have therefore created the UFMD project (supported by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture) to collect farm management data with students for educational and research issues. The initiative is accompanied by the HSWT and an outcome of the Erasmus+ project TOPAS.
For the assessment and planning of farms activities, a sound understanding of the economic estimation of production processes is essential. Although state statistic is often used, the high aggregation and the unsecure data quality of the data is often not sufficient for the educational purposes. As a result the lack of appropriate farm data or information at the level of production processes is not appropriate for the educational process and does not lead to a sound understanding of farm business and production reality.
UFMD aims to create an e-information base of farm data and to establish a gross margin data collection. Universities are closely cooperating with all stakeholders, particularly with farms. The data collected are treated anonymous. The target is to obtain reliable information for farm business analysis as well as a closer cooperation between universities and the agro business. The collection of farm data is part of the study process and carried out with experienced lecturers who supervise students. The presentation of the gross margins will be similar to gross margin collections available from Germany (KTBL, LfL Bavaria etc.).
UFMF also aims to have a broad impact on all target groups. The approach and the development is presented on an own webpage (www.u-fmd.net).
The results of the data collections are to be compared among the farms and continuously improved and expanded. It is expected that more ukrainian agrarian universities and colleges will supplement the network in the next years. The results are also expected to form reliable Bench marks for Ukrainian agriculture development and so support farms to improve their decision making and competitiveness.

Keywords: Database, farm data, gross margin, higher agrarian education

Contact Address: Kateryna Tuzhyk, National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Cybernetics Economic, 15 Heroiv Oborony Str, 03041 Kyiv, Ukraine, e-mail: ufmdprojectgmail.com