He sees hope in the transformation of the abandoned collectivefarm into a state-of-the-art pig farm, underwritten by Dutch and British venture capital.
His party appeals to entrepreneurial farmers as well as city businessmen, which is one reason, with a general election next spring, why he has chosen to bunk out of the government: he does not think it has done enough to reinvigorate farming, and one coalition partner is tied to the old collective-farm establishment.