Economic Growth and Income Generation
Mercy-USA for AID and Development

Economic Growth and Income Generation

Since 2007, Mercy-USA has been operating an Agriculture Education Center (AEC) in the Brcko District of Bosnia. This AEC is being carried out in cooperation with Brcko district authorities, who donated approximately one acre of farmland, and the Agriculture Institute of Sarajevo, which is providing technical assistance.

The AEC project, funded by a US Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant and the generous support of M-USA’s private donors, includes a 10,900 square-foot greenhouse and serves as a theoretical and practical training center for farmers in and around the Brcko District and students from the local agriculture school.

The AEC also distributes a portion of the seedlings grown in the greenhouse to vulnerable families. From 2009 to December 2012, Mercy-USA’s AEC distributed over 80,600 tomato, cucumber, eggplant and melon seedlings to about 1,250 internally displaced families (about 4,200 persons) living in the greater Tuzla area. The vegetables and fruit produced from the seedlings has helped these vulnerable families to feed themselves.

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From August 2003 to March 2006, under a grant worth almost $3 million from the United States Department of Agriculture, Mercy-USA for Aid and Development distributed poultry (egg-layer and broiler) packages, fruit tree packages with hand tools, chainsaws, bees and beehives, hay trimmers, livestock feed mills or greenhouses to 2,369 families living in the Brcko District of Bosnia.

During this period, M-USA also provided over 1,780 of these families with training specific to their choice of input through group seminars on poultry and orchard care, greenhouse production and beekeeping. Additionally, Mercy-USA contracted with local agronomists to ensure that on-site consultation and technical support was available to any client family that needed it.

In March 2006, Mercy-USA began construction on an Agriculture Education Center (AEC) in Brcko. This center is being initiated and carried out in cooperation with Brcko district authorities, who donated approximately one acre of farmland, and the Agriculture Institute of Sarajevo, which is providing technical assistance.

The AEC project, which includes the construction of a 10,890 square-foot greenhouse that is to be completed by July 2006, will serve as a theoretical and practical training center for all of our beneficiary farmers plus all farmers in and around the Brcko District. It is expected that this project, initiated under this USDA grant, will directly and indirectly benefit approximately 4,000 farmers per year.

In 2004, M-USA’s subcontractor for the forestry and agri-training components, Counterpart International (CPI), assisted approximately 1,500 families under the forestry component, and about 75 acres of forest were cleaned and thinned out to restore biodiversity. Also, during that same period, CPI trained approximately 2,000 family farmers through technical support seminars on a variety of topics including: orchard planting; sunflower and rape seed oil production; medicinal herb production; protection of fruit trees from illnesses and pests; and the economics of fruit growing and oil seed and medicinal herb production, etc.

The projects, funded under this USDA agreement, have impacted approximately 15,000 people directly through the distribution of agricultural inputs and seedlings, as well as the provision of technical training. In addition, thousands more have indirectly benefited through general improvements to the Brcko District’s environment. With USDA’s support, Mercy-USA has already helped returnee and formerly displaced families take an important step towards a return to self-sufficiency in the near and long term by facilitating the production of food at home.

Under two previous USDA grants, M-USA provided over 6,460 displaced and returnee families in Brcko District with various agricultural inputs to assist them in reviving their small farming businesses. Mercy-USA has also trained executives and managers in the wheat milling industry and other agri-businesses. Further, through our partner CPI, M-USA supported urban greening, reforestation and other environment-enhancing programs.

From 1994 through 1999, Mercy-USA distributed about 5 million pounds of vegetable seeds and 1.8 million pounds of fertilizer that produced over 99 million pounds of various vegetables. Mercy-USA also distributed 11,700 seedling plum trees, over 60,000 gardening tools and chain saws to vulnerable families throughout the country. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) helped to fund these projects.

Mercy-USA has helped small family agri-businesses by providing them with beehives, livestock and other necessary inputs (animal feed, medicines, etc.). In return, these farmers provided Mercy-USA with a portion of their production (honey, eggs, and livestock offspring) that was redistributed to other families.

During 1998, Mercy-USA provided demobilized veterans with job search, resume-preparation and interview skills.