Under a grant worth almost $3 million from the United States Department of Agriculture, Mercy-USA for Aid and Development (M-USA) is establishing an Agriculture Education Center (AEC) in the Brcko District of Bosnia. This center is being initiated and carried out in cooperation with district authorities, who have donated about one acre of farmland, and the Agriculture Institute of Sarajevo, which is providing technical assistance.
The AEC project, which includes the construction of a 10,890 square-foot greenhouse that is to be completed by July 2006, will serve as a theoretical and practical training center for all of our beneficiary farmers plus all farmers in and around the Brcko District. It is expected that this project, initiated under this USDA grant, will directly and indirectly benefit approximately 4,000 farmers per year.
From August 2003 to March 2006, under this same USDA grant, M-USA distributed poultry (egg-layer and broiler) packages, fruit tree packages with hand tools, chainsaws, bees and beehives, hay trimmers, livestock feed mills or greenhouses to 2,369 farming families.
In addition, M-USA provided over 1,780 of these families with training specific to their choice of input through group seminars on poultry and orchard care, greenhouse production and beekeeping. Additionally, Mercy-USA contracted with local agronomists to ensure that on-site consultation and technical support was available to any client family that needed it.
In 2004, M-USA’s subcontractor for the forestry and agri-training components, Counterpart International (CPI), assisted approximately 1,500 families under the forestry component, and about 75 acres of forest were cleaned and thinned out to restore biodiversity. Also, during that same period, CPI trained approximately 2,000 family farmers through technical support seminars on a variety of topics including: orchard planting; sunflower and rape seed oil production; medicinal herb production; protection of fruit trees from illnesses and pests; and the economics of fruit growing and oil seed and medicinal herb production, etc.
The projects, funded under this USDA agreement, have impacted approximately 15,000 people directly through the distribution of agricultural inputs and seedlings, as well as the provision of technical training. In addition, thousands more have indirectly benefited through general improvements to the Brcko District’s environment. With USDA’s support, Mercy-USA has helped returnee and formerly displaced families take an important step towards a return to self-sufficiency in the near and long term by facilitating the production of food at home.
In February 2003, M-USA signed its third United States Government agricultural development grant agreement for Bosnia. With this third USDA grant, M-USA is continuing a USDA-funded project started in 1999 to revive the small farming businesses of returnee and displaced families in the Brcko District of Bosnia.
Since 1998, Mercy-USA has been providing training to individuals in the leading basic office software. This project is increasing the office/clerical and computer skills of trainees and thus their employability. As of December 2005, over 1,100 persons have graduated from this program. Forty-two persons are currently enrolled in the training sessions.
In 2004, Mercy-USA initiated a series of two-month long intensive English language courses in Srebrenik Municipality in northeastern Bosnia. As of December 2005, over 200 adults had successfully completed these courses. Forty-one persons are currently enrolled in the program.
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