Greenhouse gardening in Serbia
CWS is helping internally displaced families in the Rasinski District of Serbia to improve their food security and increase earnings by providing training, seeds, and greenhouses for vegetable cultivation.
Photo: CWS
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The area of Krusevac, in the Rasinski District in southern Serbia, has become home to some 10,800 internally displaced persons (IDPs). For the past two years, Church World Service, with support from Foods Resource Bank (FRB) and in coordination with local partner Voice of Kosovo and Metohija (VOKAM), has been supporting some 50 families--about 361 persons--in their attempt to build new lives in this region: CWS has provided greenhouses (along with seeds and training) in which the families are cultivating vegetables.
The initiative is enabling the families to improve their own food security and increase their income. In the second year, the program has focused on making greenhouse vegetable production profitable by providing families with appropriate business training, equipment, and improved greenhouse design. The goal is for the families to raise sufficient food to feed themselves year-round, as well as earn an income from the sale of surplus produce in local markets when prices are highest (e.g., winter and early spring). Additionally, participant families have donated 15% of their production to local institutions such as orphanages. In the next phase, being undertaken this year, the families are working to strengthen their agricultural production and marketing through farmer cooperatives.