SIKESTON MAN LEARNS FARM TECHNIQUES IN RUSSIA

SIKESTON -- For Don Pigg, helping farmers in need is just business. It doesn't matter if those farmers are right here in Sikeston or on the other side of the world.

Pigg, who works in agricultural credit for Production Credit Association of Southeast Missouri, recently traveled to Russia through an international development program.

It was sponsored by the Agricultural Cooperative Development International/Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance, which works to identify economic opportunities and to increase the transfer of technology between nations.

"We want to improve the lives of those overseas and see how they live and bring that information back to educate those back home," said Barbara Smith, the organization's administrative officer.

She said the organization sends volunteer consultants to many overseas destinations to work on short-term technical assignments that will better that nation. It finds these volunteers by using a database of some 3,000 names.

Smith said if one of the 3,000 volunteers listed on the database does not meet the qualifications for the position the group wants to fill, the organization then must search around.

After listening to a speaker at a conference he attended last fall, Pigg became interested in the program. So, he submitted a resume and waited to be matched with an organization that would utilize his training and talent.

"It's interesting just getting to see how other people live," Pigg Pigg. "I've always been interested in travel, so I decided to take the opportunity and hopefully, impart knowledge that might help them."

The organization eventually matched Pigg with an agricultural loan and savings cooperative named Podderzhka, the Russian equivalent of his job in the United States.

So, in May, Pigg flew from St. Louis to New York, then boarded a plane headed for Moscow. He spent one week in Moscow, then proceeded to Rostov-on-Don, a town in southern Russia where he spent 12 days.

Pigg spent much of his time in Russia working with the cooperative and its employees, developing policies, procedures and internal control mechanisms.

It was the language barrier that wasn't so easy to cross.

The most difficult part was communicating through communicators, Pigg said.

He was supplied with an interpreter by ACDI/VOCA. While the interpreter was very capable of translating a normal conversation, Pigg said he wasn't very knowledgeable or understanding of financial terms.

Pigg described the area of Russia in which he worked as very good agricultural land, with a dark, deep, productive topsoil. The farmers here generally grow wheat, barley and sunflowers and work with limited machinery and even less financial resources.

While Russian farmers want better equipment and better seeds, there are limited financial resources and laws make loaning and financing difficult. Local banks are unwilling to make loans, leaving the cooperative, which Pigg said really wants to help the farmers, without a money source.

While the limited resources available to the Russian farmers surprised Pigg, he was impressed by the attitude of the Russian people.

"They are so happy to have their freedom," he said. "The conditions are probably much better now, but with the devaluation of the ruble, they're still happy to be where they're at today."