Rising fuel and raw material prices, as well as a return to organic farming methods, are pushing some to abandon heavy machinery. Vigandas Indrasius, a Lithuanian farmer in the Birzai district, decided to sell his tractors and use horses to work the land instead.
Indrasius, who owns 300 hectares of land, is cultivating it with more than a hundred horses. He says it is not only more profitable but also much more environmentally friendly.
“If you have to transport one bale of hay for one kilometre and you get on a tractor and drive, there is wear and tear,” the farmer said. “But if you go with a horse, you don’t pollute the environment, you don’t burn fuel.”
According to Indrasius, the use of horses for fieldwork is becoming more common in Western countries, especially on organic farms.
“One person can work with four horses and do more work in the same amount of time, which is the vision we have set out,” he said.
However, such a vision is not easy to implement in Lithuania, the farmer admits.
“The whole infrastructure was destroyed in Soviet times, and it’s not very easy to rebuild it now and to train people,” Indrasius said.
According to him, it is difficult to cultivate land with horses on very big farms. Lithuania’s Agriculture Ministry also doubts that returning to the old methods of farming could be possible.
“The main purpose of agriculture is to provide the country’s population with food. The productivity of working the land with horses will not catch up with the productivity we obtain by working the land the way we do now,” said Arunas Jurgaitis, a spokesman for the Agriculture Ministry.
According to the ministry, the number of horses in Lithuania is also decreasing rapidly. In the 1930s, there were more than half a million horses in the country, down to around 15,000 now. (LRT/Business World Magazine)