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Robert Haidari photo

Robert Haidari

Robert Haidari is an American technology executive, entrepreneur, and educator. He is the founder and board chair of System 28, a nonprofit focused on food security and agricultural development. Its work includes training displaced women in Ukraine to operate farm machinery. He previously served as chief technology officer of Hello Tractor, an agricultural technology company operating across Africa. His teaching focuses on geopolitics and cybersecurity.

Articles

A farm worker poses for a portrait at a dairy farm damaged by Russian attacks in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine, on Aug. 16, 2024.

Who will work Ukraine's farms as the workforce shortage deepens?

by Robert Haidari
On my way back to Kyiv in October after visiting my partners in eastern Ukraine, I had to get off the train in the middle of the night because Russian drones were headed our way. The foundation I chair teaches displaced Ukrainian women to operate farm machinery through accredited schools, and lately I have been asking myself whether that work makes sense right now. Mobilization and emigration have pulled many of the men who drove tractors and combines out of the fields, and in May, Taras Vysot