An educational and social project for schoolchildren from Continental Farmers Group.
Smart Garden Project
The project consists of 3 interlinked components:
- “Smart Garden: Open field”: for participants from rural areas
- “Smart Garden. Microgreens”: for participants from urban areas
- “Smart Garden. Education” on-line platform and off-line trainings and education program that offers courses: From Idea to Startup, Marketing: The Art of Influence, Effective Sales, Agronomy, Vegetable Production: Top-Yield Practices
Smart Garden 
Smart Garden. Microgreen 
Smart Garden. Education
The Goal of the project
The goal of the initiative is to involve children and young people in agriculture, show them the prospects of modern agricultural technologies, give them practical skills in gardening, entrepreneurship, and encourage financial literacy.
Beeld: © https://cfg.com.ua/
Dutch support
From 2023 the project is supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ukraine. Traditionally, the project partners are Enza Zaden Ukraine and RijkZwaan Ukraine, providing seeds and agronomic support for project participants. The companies' agronomists advise children and accompany them in the process of growing vegetables.
Smart Garden - Enza Zaden agronomic support 
Smart Garden - Rijk Zwaan agronomic support
2025 - Smart Garden. Education
With the support of the Government of the Netherlands, “Smart Garden. Education” was launched in 2025. See also Smart Garden. Education | Project Database CMS
The project is an educational initiative for young people aimed at building basic knowledge in entrepreneurship and agricultural production, as well as developing skills for transforming ideas into projects and products, and fostering personal growth. The program combines offline trainings, online courses, strategy games, and practical assignments, enabling participants to develop creativity, self-confidence, and the competencies needed for successful real-life implementation. See promo video
Project results
RESULT 1. Online learning and development of the educational platform
Five comprehensive, fully developed courses were created, logically combining the content of related subjects:
- From Idea to Startup
- Marketing: The Art of Influence
- Effective Sales
- Vegetable Production: Toward the Best Yield
- Agronomy
The courses are available for free on the platform Розумно з Контінентал to any interested students and adults from different regions of Ukraine.
RESULT 2. Offline trainings and practical learning
During 2025 40 trainings were conducted for 800 project participants from both urban and rural areas of Ukraine, including participants of Smart Garden and Smart Garden.Microgreen.
Off-line training topics:
- Leadership: How to Become a Leader in Your Team
- Motivation and Development Strategy: How to Set and Achieve Goals
- Business Psychology: How Successful People Think
- Time Management: How to Get Things Done and Avoid Burnout
- Self-Presentation: How to Talk About Yourself and Be Remembered
- Negotiation: How to Negotiate and Persuade Others
- Project Management: How to Turn Ideas into Reality
- Financial Literacy
- a dedicated training session was conducted for teachers, focused on the fundamentals of organizing school-based social entrepreneurship.
At the same time Continental Farmers Group is establishing cooperation with the Departments of Education and Science with the aim of integrating the Smart Garden. Education experience in the school curriculum.
RESULT 3. Project evaluation, summarizing of the lessons learnt and promo campaign for follow up activities
Among the key results of the project is the creation of educational materials that are unique in their content, with a predominantly practical focus, as well as an active online platform accessible to students and adults across Ukraine. The materials function not only as standalone learning courses but also complement the national entrepreneurship education program approved in 2025.
The project contributed to strengthening the local business climate through systematic support of educational institutions and partners who play a key role in forming the future talent pool of Ukraine’s agricultural sector. Collaboration with regional education departments made it possible to build stable mechanisms for informing and engaging students across different regions.
Dutch companies made a significant contribution to the quality of the educational materials by providing participants with access to modern agricultural technologies, practices, and international expertise. This substantially enhanced the international dimension of the project and created a foundation for future cooperation and potential internship programs.
Overall, the project established a new model of collaboration between schools, businesses, government bodies, and international partners, fostering the development of professional skills among young people and contributing to the long-term strengthening of Ukraine’s agricultural sector.
Over the course of project implementation, 750 unique social media posts were created, along with around 150 media materials — text articles, interviews, and TV news segments.
The links to media materials are below.
Announcement Smart Garden Season 2026
Smart Garden Season 2025 in Ukrainian
Smart Garden.Company visits in Ukrainian
«Контінентал» запускає всеукраїнський освітній проєкт для молоді
(2) Тернопільська бізнес-школа
Розумний ГОРОД В ШКОЛІ! Як учні Вінницького ліцею вирощують мікрозелень на продаж - YouTube and in Facebook
"Smart Garden" microgreen for Ukrainian schools read also here
Smart Garden open field. Season 2023 In Ukrainian
Smart Garden – Agronomic Support 2023
video announcement of Smart Garden Microgreen 2024
Smart Garden Microgreen Kryvyi Rig in Ukrainain
Video Smart Garden Microgreen in Uman in Ukrainain
Beeld: © https://cfg.com.ua/
Smart Garden - open field
In rural areas the participants of the "Smart Garden" grow the traditional vegetables of so called “Ukrainian borshch kit”: beets, cabbage, carrots, onions and peppers. Medicinal herbs include mallow and calendula. For the first time in 2023, they harvested peanuts, which they added into energy bars and pumpkins, from which candied fruits were made.
Two Dutch breeding companies (Enza Zaden Ukraine and Rijk Zwaan Ukraine), and a Ukrainian manufacturer of biological plant protection products joined the initiative and provided vegetable seeds and agronomic support for the participants. More than 150 young farmers from Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, and Lviv regions grow even more crops: tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, zucchini and zucchini, cucumbers, melons, and watermelons. Candied pumpkins are used to make candied fruit for the military. Peanuts are harvested and filled with honey to make a healthy snack, which is sent to the defenders along with candied fruit, dry borscht sets, and herbal teas.
Beeld: © https://cfg.com.ua/
Smart Garden microgreen
This version of the Smart Garden introduces the agricultural sector to young people living in big cities. Here, agronomy is combined with engineering: students grow microgreens on a rack with automatic irrigation and lighting, sell the harvest to local restaurants - a real business constructor! Participants are responsible for all the processes they control on their own, learning the basics of economics and socially responsible entrepreneurship. The project also promotes a culture of healthy eating!