DEALER AWARDS SUPPORTING UKRAINE AGRICULTURE

The organisers of the Service Dealer Awards have announced the good cause that the ceremony will be supporting this year.

This year it’s a crowdfunder rather than a charity, with the raffle on the night generating funds for Safe Fields For Ukraine - which has been established to raise money to help develop equipment for the disposal of landmines

Service Dealer owner Duncan Murray-Clarke said, "Earlier this year, it was heart-warming to see so many across the industry coming forward to support or fundraise for those affected by the war in Ukraine. With battles on-going, we therefore felt it only right we continue to build on this support.

"After losing the battle of Kyiv Russian troops indiscriminately scattered mines in agricultural fields in about 20% of Ukraine, killing many farmers and crippling the industry. Current methods to remove mines are labour intensive and dangerous – relying on this system alone would take over a decade to clear the vast area involved.

"Safe Fields Ukraine, is fundraising to support the development of an innovative new system - being developed by a group of leading agricultural IT specialists, together with the Technical University of Vinnyt’sia - which will reduce the risk to life and speed up the process of returning land to production.

"The development of such equipment will not only hugely reduce the risk to life in bomb disposal, it will also allow fields to be returned to productivity much sooner."

Initially Safe Fields Ukraine are helping to raise funds for a prototype, on completion of the project, the working prototype will be gifted to the Ukrainian government and put to work.

You can learn more about the initiative on their Crowdfunder page.