9-15 June in South Africa was held a conference «The Cash Crop Conference 2012" by the project "Agri benchmark", the partner of which from Ukraine in the last 4 years has been serving the Association "Ukrainian Agribusiness Club" (UCAB). The participants noted the significant potential of increasing yields of basic grains in the CIS, including Ukraine.

To study and compare the competitiveness of national producers of milk, cereals, oilseeds and beef producers, Association "Ukrainian Agribusiness Club" introduced 4 years ago with the support of the German Agricultural Society (DLG, Frankfurt, Germany) and the Federal Research Institute for rural areas, forestry and fisheries (vTI, Braunschweig, Germany) in Ukraine an international benchmarking analysis of the best agricultural enterprises in Ukraine.

With the unified model as part of the "Agri benchmark» are compared the systems of production, costs and income of farms not only within one country, but around the world to determine their competitiveness and identify the causes and conditions of effective management.

The first session of this year's project was devoted to the potential intensification of cereals and oilseeds production. Representing Ukraine in South Africa, an expert of the Association "Ukrainian Agribusiness Club" Roman Slaston accented that our country can increase the yield of most crops by 50-55% only by the assumption of weak agricultural companies best practices of successful agricultural enterprises.

Expert UCAB was supported by colleagues from different countries of the world, noted that the CIS countries, particularly Ukraine had great potential to increase yields of basic crops.

“Significant increase the efficiency of cereals and oilseeds production can be achieved by improving the production processes of fertilization, the use of quality seeds, improving the quality of manufacturing operations, improve management in farms", - told Roman Slaston.

For example, effective management farms are got nearly 5-6 tons per hectare of wheat, maize - 8-10 tons per hectare, sunflower - 2.5-3 tons per hectare, what is 50% higher than the average farms.

In addition to the potential of growing cereals and oilseeds, during a conference in South Africa, country-members of the project "Agri benchmark» discussed the expansion of areas under crops, transport and logistics, as well as of agricultural holdings activities.

About "Agri benchmark"                                                                                                               

To study and compare the competitiveness of national producers of milk, cereals, oilseeds and beef producers, Association "Ukrainian Agribusiness Club" introduced with the support of the German Agricultural Society (DLG, Frankfurt, Germany) and the Federal Research Institute for rural areas, forestry and fisheries (vTI, Braunschweig, Germany) in Ukraine an international benchmarking analysis of the best agricultural enterprises in Ukraine.

Close cooperation in the project with partners from all over the world gives not only a global understanding of the changes and development of the studied areas, but you can acquaint with the colleagues techniques and methods of work in the production of milk, beef, grain and oil. Thus, the analysis of dairy farms is participated more than 300 farms in almost all EU countries. Analysis of beef production is carried out already in 17 countries, representing approximately 80% of world beef production. In addition, the project involved agricultural economists from 21 countries and from 6 continents.

Thus, each individual company, be supported by international experts, can get new ideas to improve and develop your business, to exchange experience with foreign colleagues, to identify their strengths and weaknesses in comparison with others, find out how effective and competitive are different, what perspectives of development of this or other sector and what factors influence the decision-making heads of farms.