Marina Cerkasenko’s business story started 10 years ago, when she decided to practice agriculture and founded a farm. At first, she rented only a few plots of land, and today she manages over 66 hectares of land in Grigoriopol town cropped with maize, sunflower, oat, esparcet, and wheat.  

“Cereals are the main source for producing the food products necessary for human use and as fodder for animals. Due to the benefits induced based on regular consumption, cereals represent a real health source for the human body. As well, the field crops serve as raw material for industry. Hence, the demand is high and we try our best to meet it with brio," says the farmer.

Marina Cerkasenko mentions that when extending the cropped areas, she felt the acute need to procure modern agricultural technique, but she did not have the necessary money. The opportunity to make her dream come true appeared when she found out during the summer of 2020 about a grants’ contest launched by the UNDP “Advanced cross-river capacities for trade” (AdTrade) project, with financial assistance offered by Sweden. She has participated in the contest with a business development plan and it has been a great joy for her to find herself among the 21 winners. Thanks to the grant obtained from Sweden, Marina Cerkasenko succeeded to buy a modern tractor, which has been immediately called the “iron assistant”. “I am so glad that our company decided to participate in this contest. Thanks to the new tractor, we will be able to develop our business quicker and to create three additional jobs,” concluded the farm owner, on a happy note.

Even though the harvest got compromised this year because of severe weather conditions, Marina Cerkasenko remains confident for her business future and mentions that the financial and consultancy assistance provided under the UNDP/AdTrade project offered her new opportunities, powered her and determined to further develop her agricultural business, using new techniques for land processing, optimizing resources and increasing productivity.

“It is very important in an agricultural business to constantly monitor crops’ growth, to fertilize the fields, to collect and store the harvest timely and in adequate conditions. To succeed all of these, it is necessary to have modern agricultural equipment and I really think that the new tractor, which is sustainable and saving, will help us a lot in obtaining the expected results with less efforts than in the past,” underlined Marina Cerkasenko.

The entrepreneur’s plans do not stop here, she dreams for harvesting high value crops on her land to reach the European Union countries. That’s why she attends also the workshops organized within the UNDP/AdTrade Project for entrepreneurs from both banks of the River Nistru for building export capacities and identifying partners abroad. Marina Cerkasenko truly believes that this dream will soon come true, with constant effort and will.