Summary

Damjana Ostanek Heric is a young farmer, whose vegetable farm is located in an area without natural water resources for irrigation. In addition, as a result of climate change, the farm is frequently affected by drought while storms are becoming increasingly frequent, particularly in the summer.

Aiming to increase her farm’s competitiveness and reduce the impact of climate change on the farm, Damjana used investment support from the Slovenian Rural Development Programme (RDP) to build two new greenhouses and rebuild an existing one. She also constructed a water reservoir and installed an irrigation network.

Results

With this project, the farm gained 0.22 ha (2 216 m2) of covered area to grow vegetables. All the cultivated land on the farm is now irrigated.

Thanks to the investment the winter production of vegetables will increase by approximately 50%. 

In 2018, the beneficiary’s husband was also employed on the farm.