Agricultural Initiative

The mission of CCI’s Agricultural Initiative was to create food sufficiency for Russia’s urban citizens and small private farmers in the wake of state-farm collapse in the early 90s. The Ag Initiative started with small unrelated, short-term projects aimed at providing low-income veterans, pensioners and multi-child families the means to feed themselves.

Beginning in 1989, CCI orchestrated a series of “seed lifts” which were carried out annually by volunteers, both American and Russian. Distributing from 50-pound gunnysacks to citizens’ hand-made paper containers, CCI gave away its first high-quality, cold-climate U.S. vegetable seeds. Eventually over 200 tons of vegetable seeds were distributed into the hands of ordinary Russian citizens, who then began their first efforts at food sufficiency for themselves.

CCI volunteers preparing boxes of emergency staples for Russian friends

During the winter of 1990 when Russia’s political and economic climate worsened, CCI started “food lifts,” sending 50-pound boxes of basic food items per family via 40-foot cargo shipping containers. CCI volunteers then distributed the boxes to designated families in Leningrad and Moscow.

During 1991’s severe food crisis, CCI leaders began to promote the concept of urban gardens to meet the urgent need. Next they brought a world-recognized specialist in rooftop gardening to Russia to get the project underway. After initial skepticism from the Russian populace due to fears of soil contamination and thievery, rooftop gardening grew in popularity. It soon became the topic of Russian magazine articles, radio talk shows and television programs. Babushkas hauled soil up to roofs, built plastic greenhouses between ventilation outlets, and even developed small rooftop businesses.

Concurrently CCI identified Russian agronomists interested in food sufficiency to travel to the U.S. to meet with American Extension Service specialists. The goal was to transplant the concept of Extension Services to Russia to aid the development of private agriculture. In 1992 the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation provided funding for CCI to create the first U.S. Extension pilot program on Russian soil at the All Russia Agricultural College, which supervises 345 Russian agricultural colleges.

In 1994 CCI received funding from USAID to establish U.S. Extension models in seven other Russian agricultural regions. Extension materials were translated and sent to the 345 agricultural colleges, with agricultural scientists adding their own experience to the model. A Russian graduate student in agronomy, Natalya Andreeva, emerged as a strong Extension advocate. She wrote articles, made presentations and traveled around Russia and the U.S. promoting this idea. Andreeva directed CCI’s Extension program in Russia and when funding ended, the Russian Ministry of Agriculture hired her as Russia’s first Director of Extension Services.

To date some 50 Extension Services have been set up across Russia using the experience and materials developed by CCI. CCI’s Ag Initiative ended in 1997 when U.S. funding came to an end.