In War-Torn Ukraine, ENST's Dr. Ray Weil Advises Farmers on Regenerative Agriculture
Soil scientist Ray Weil teaches Ukrainian farmers about a range of techniques to guard the health of the soil in their fields, a resource under increasing pressure in the war-torn country.
Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine didn’t just kill people and destroy infrastructure. The nation’s rich, black soil—one of the world’s most fertile sources of food—also fell under threat as fighting, unexploded ordnance and other environmental contamination took wide swaths of farmland out of commission and put higher demands on remaining fields than ever before.
Now a University of Maryland soil scientist is lending his expertise so the country can protect and improve this precious resource. Ray Weil, a professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Technology, spent three weeks in war-torn Ukraine over the summer advising a new generation of farmers on regenerative agriculture, cover crops and soil health.
Along with an international team of agricultural experts, he visited a dozen farms across the country, the largest of which has about as much cropland as the entire state of Maryland. Some nights Weil fell asleep to the sounds of distant anti-aircraft fire, or awoke in the darkness to run to a bomb shelter.
Despite the difficult conditions, dozens of farmers turned out for his “soil pit talks,” each given at a hole that a farmer had excavated prior to his arrival. His presentations covered how to evaluate the soil, and how current and past management had affected the soil profile characteristics, and suggested practices that could improve soil health, specifically on that farm.
At a two-day conference held at the end of the field tour, “I had hundreds of people around one pit,” he said. “I’d never experienced that before. There was so much interest.”
