Agriculture

Audrius Banionis, a large farmer in prosperous Kaunas district, is often asked to reveal the secret of his success. Having realised the dream of his childhood of being a farmer, today he can boast about one of the most modern farms. Audrius Banionis is one of the Lithuanian farmers who has modernised his farm with the European Union and Lithuanian support funds.

Old machinery is being replaced with modern one
Lithuania is traditionally an agricultural country therefore the village in which one third of the population of Lithuania lives has always been one of the mainstays during the hard times of a financial crisis. Active Lithuanian farmers successfully modernise their holdings with the European Union and Lithuanian support funds because an ever-increasing number of farmers understand that they will never make their farms efficient and profitable without the help of state-of-the-art agricultural machinery and technical equipment.

Old-fashioned Russian or Belarussian machinery, primitive implements and manual labour on livestock farms stopped to guarantee a bright future for the farmers a long time ago. Increasing competition, growing production costs are reasons that make farming methods to be improved and means of labour to be renewed.

Old unreliable tractors that use a lot of fuel are being replaced with modern ones, and modern combine harvesters work in the fields, new equipment is used on the farmers’ livestock farms.

A farmer or his assistant who earns his living from agriculture spends about 1000 hours in a tractor per year. Hence, working conditions also make the farmers acquire good machinery. Thus, state-of-the-art machinery has become a necessity in the holdings of the farmers who want to compete.

It is not difficult for farmers to receive support
On the whole, it was the farmers of the country who were the first to enjoy the advantage of Lithuania’s membership in the European Union as support received helped them keep abreast with the time and turned their farms into modern complexes similar to the prospering ones in the Western European countries.

A total of LTL 7,89 billion has been allocated according to the Rural Development Programme for 2007-2013. The European Union allocates 77.27 per cent and the remaining part is covered from Lithuania’s contribution.

The farmers ask for support mainly because they want to modernise their holdings. From the very beginning of the implementation of support to the first quarter of last year the amount requested increased up to LTL 1,11 billion. Why do farmers seek to receive support according to this programme? It is universal and exceptional not only in that it encourages implementing new processes, technologies and innovations. Support allocated to “Modernisation of agricultural holdings” is provided to three spheres of activity; 1. “The implementation of the requirements of the Nitrates Directive and the new obligatory standards of the Community; 2. Manufacture of agricultural products and (or) provision of services to agriculture; Manufacture of biogas from the farm waste; Processing (sorting out, packaging, etc.) of marketable agricultural products (produced or grown on the farm holding) and putting them on the market; 3. Cultivation of short-rotation plantations.

The number of farmers who filed applications increased after the rules for receiving support had been simplified. Farmers themselves know how to prepare all the necessary documents, and they no longer need help from the outside.

The farm is growing with every year
Audrius Banionis who has been recognised the best farmer in Kaunas district manages 800 hectares of land. He made use of the possibility to receive support for manufacturing agricultural products and their processing. Audrius Banionis is one of the most successful examples showing how absorption of the European Union support helped his farm reach the desired level. Financial injections of the European Union allocated according to the Lithuanian Rural Development Programme 2007-2013 have propped up the farmer’s business. The farmer has cherished the dream of becoming a large farmer since his childhood, and he hoped to realise his dream some day.

Having acquired partly damaged buildings that belonged to an agricultural partnership and some animals 15 years ago, Audrius.Banionis finally came closer to the dream of his childhood. With every year his farm grew larger and became more beautiful.

Today modern meat processing, bread and confectionary production shops are built on his farm, heavy vehicle and agricultural machinery – tractors, combine harvesters and other implements necessary in farming are used in the fields.

Modernised livestock farms
The year before last, the farmer was encouraged twice for modernising his farm holdings. He equipped a new sow farm, milking grounds, cowsheds and recovered half of his investments – LTL 300 thousand. New electronic equipment purchased for the received support funds waters and feeds the pigs, keeps them clean and maintains temperature. Audrius Banionis will be paid back LTL 500 thousand for new agricultural machinery purchased last year, as well as for the stalls and watering places equipped.

At the present time builders are again working in Audrius Banionis’ holdings – he plans to renew two more pigsties and submit an application for receiving the European Union support again.

The state-of-the-art and the most powerful machinery is already in the garages of the farm.

“People often ask me what is the secret of my success. And it is really simple – work that is dear to your heart and a reliable team. If you have these things, you can move heaven and earth”, the farmer said looking at his fields.

The persistent man never paid attention to the sceptics who tried to persuade him that it was not worth wasting his time on preparing projects to receive support.

Bakes bread too
The best farmer in Kaunas district, however, did not limit himself to cattle breeding alone. Only what is grown on his farm is sliced, smoked and baked in Audrius Banionis’ shops occupying and area of 600 square meters. After the farmer gathers in the harvest in the fields, he puts the bread into two ovens – the German and Lithuanian ones. Every day 2,5 tons of bread products, several tons of raw meat, sausages, ham and skilandis (the belly of a pig stuffed with chopped spiced meat) made exclusively to Lithuanian recipes leave his shops and are delivered to the shops and farmers’ markets. There is nothing strange that 100 people work for Audrius Banionis’ company – bakers, meat cutters, carriers, and shop assistants. Few Lithuanian large farmers could boast of having such a team. Everyday four tons of milk are milked in the farmers’ cowsheds, and Audrius Banionis buys cows at the auctions held in Germany and Norway. There will never be a lack of resources on the farm – there are 160 cows, 1000 pigs, 300 beef cows and bulls on the farm of the forty-year-old farmer.

Calculates the growing profit
The majority of Lithuanian farmers who received support funds to modernise their farms even cannot say exactly how much additional profit modern machinery has brought them.

The farmer in Panevėžys district Alfonsas Kairys has markedly renewed his agricultural machinery and made use of the European Union support during several past years. According to him, all modern machinery and agricultural technology will allow him to increase the profit brought by the farm by as much as 20 per cent.

The total value of his project amounts to LTL 650 thousand (excluding VAT).
Not a long time ago a new combine harvester and a trailer appeared in the fields of the farmer. Modern machinery has started to reap the harvest of this year. According to the farmer, during the average year, productivity of land should increase by about as much as 10-15 per cent, and the profit of the farm – by about 20 per cent. Alfonsas Kairys tills 690 hectares of land; he grows rape, wheat, hybrids of rye and wheat.

Alfonsas Kairys says that having acquired modern agricultural machinery it is not only an increase in productivity of land, income or profit that is of importance. “Labour efficiency and productivity differ significantly because there is no need to make constant repairs, expenses on repairs decrease. It is real pleasure to work with modern machinery, the level of quality is quite different”, spoke the farmer.

The farmer of Panevėžys district is happy that all his expectations have been fulfilled. “This is important especially to those farmers who farm in places that are less favourable to farming. Without good machinery it would be extremely difficult for us to farm and compete with the farmers who own land in the places of high-grade land. It would be inefficient to farm in the places that are less favourable to farming using old machinery and the farm would really be unprofitable. It is the European Union support that provides us with the possibility to take part in a competitive fight”, spoke the farmer.

Sales of machinery are soaring
The Lithuania’s agricultural sector, which demonstrated unbelievable resistance to economic shocks, made sellers of agricultural machinery really happy. Trades people state that every year one can see more and more modern western machinery in Lithuanian fields. For example, last year sellers of modern agricultural machinery increased the turnover by as much as one fourth as compared with that in 2009.

Sellers of modern machinery do not doubt that the turnover of the companies increases because of the European Union support too. And Lithuanian farmers look for world-known manufactures of machinery.