Participant of the Regional Competition "Young Person of the Year – 2025" in the Nomination "Public Figure of the Year" Hanna Likhushyna
I, Hanna Likhushyna, was born in 1993 in the village of Pisky, Donetsk region. In 2014, I graduated from the Mykhailo Tuhan-Baranovskyi Donetsk National University of Economics and Trade, where I earned a higher education degree in "Enterprise Economics."
My career at the scientific institution of the Donetsk State Agricultural Experimental Station of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine began in 2015. The main task of the team of scientists at that time was to restore the institution, which had to relocate from the village of Pisky, Donetsk region, due to military actions. The move was difficult; most of the scientists and staff refused to relocate, and a large amount of equipment and machinery was destroyed. We restored varieties of winter wheat and spring barley, developed marketing strategies and ways to popularize them among agricultural producers in the region, and developed and implemented new methods for growing crops in the region's extremely arid conditions. All this prompted me to enroll in postgraduate studies and begin my own path in agrarian science.
In 2021, I successfully defended my dissertation and received a PhD in "Agronomy," and in 2024, I received the scientific title of Senior Researcher in the specialty "Agronomy." During my years of scientific work, I have published over 50 scientific papers, received 4 patents for utility models, and 5 plant variety certificates. In 2023, I won the "Young Scientist of the Year" competition in the nomination "Selection and Genetics."
The Donetsk State Agricultural Experimental Station of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences did and continues to do a lot for the agro-industrial complex of the Donetsk region. However, budget legislation constraints did not allow us to cooperate in the humanitarian and consulting spheres. We decided to create the public organization "Eastern Ukrainian Agricultural Advisory Service" in 2019, and I was elected its head.
The activities of this public organization were aimed at helping the rural population and agricultural producers of various forms of ownership. At the beginning of our work, we conducted training programs and helped with writing business plans for participation in grant programs. However, the full-scale invasion in 2022 fundamentally changed us and our activities. Together with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), we began implementing rapid response humanitarian projects to support households and small farmers with means of production (seeds, planting material, feed for farm animals, poultry). Over the years of the war, we have implemented 11 projects with a total value exceeding 100 million UAH, and more than 10,000 households from most communities in the Donetsk region have received assistance.
In 2024, the international humanitarian organization Mercy Corps approached us and proposed a partnership in implementing the grant aid "Ukraine Agricultural Support Program." The goal of the project is to provide financial assistance for the restoration of agricultural activities to households and small and medium-sized farmers affected by military actions. This project is ongoing and planned to continue until the end of 2026. During this time, more than 200 households have received grant assistance (average amount of $3,000) to resume their agricultural activities, 10 small farmers have received grants for restoration (average amount of $75,000), and 3 medium-sized agricultural enterprises have received grant funding in the amount of $150,000. Such assistance directly impacts the country's food security, allows local businesses to recover and develop, and brings additional revenue to community budgets.
Our work is aimed not just at meeting the physiological needs of the residents of the Donetsk region, but at supporting their business initiatives, which is a path to recovery and development.