Building a new hothouse, Tsjerablichy 2015. Будоўля новага парніку, Цераблічы 2015 г.
The Belarusian state continues to prohibit private ownership of arable land other than a small plot around one’s house. Despite this prohibition small-holder farmers of the central Pripet Marshes show their ingenuity and talent for farming. Nor has the prohibition hindered further increases in productivity (always higher than that of the collective-farm system) on small-holders’ own plots or on allotments from collective farms’ unpredictable (re)assignment of small acreage.
There is no better example of farming entrepreneurship in Belarus than the growth of hothouse cultivation, principally of cucumbers, in eastern Stolin District. Small-holders in this area build, rebuild or enlarge their hothouses in late winter to get an early jump on the growing season.
