Vytautas J. Sliupas at the farm and farm project he founded in 2002, 
‘The Auksuciai Farm & Forest Center’ near Siaulia in Northern Lithuania.

After the death of his wife Liudvika, Jonas Sliupas married Grasilda Grauslytė in 1929. After settling in Palanga, their son, Vytautas, was born to them on the 24^th of October 1930.

Their son, Vytautas J. Sliupas, later became an irrigation, drainage and water resources engineer. Now retired for many years, he lives in California, USA, but visits Lithuania every summer.

I have the great honour and pleasure to call Vytautas Sliupas my friend. As I understand and feel it, he has the same strong love of Lithuania, which his father had. This despite the fact that he was forced to flee from Lithuania with his parents in 1944 and since has lived virtually all his life in the United States. 

Vytautas Sliupas’ farm project in Northern Lithuania

www.aukfoundation.org

The US non-profit Auksuciai Foundation was established to help small scale Lithuanian farmers become more self-sufficient and competitive in a free market economy. A primary way that Foundation is working to achieve this goal is through support and advisory involvement with a model farm facility (the Auksuciai Farm and Forest Center, a Lithuanian non-profit), that allows participants from academia, business, government, and the farm community to share information and technology regarding environmentally sound management (including forests) and commercial agricultural production practices. Additionally, the Foundation organizes farmer-to-farmer and agricultural student exchanges; farmer mentoring; and in country workshops between the agricultural and forest communities of the U.S. and Lithuania.

The Auksuciai Farm & Forest Center was formally established as a Lithuanian non- profit entity on 9 September 2002.The primary purpose of the centre is to provide Lithuanian farmers with educational and technological opportunities through an aggressive program of local applied research and education. It also serves as a stimulus and facilitator for the incorporation of new technologies in modern agriculture.

The centre is located on a 157-hectare (389-acre) farm near the town of Kursenai in the Siauliai Region in north Lithuania. At this site a year long programme of research on new crops, improvement of existing crops and improved farming practices is conducted by staff. The farm is operated under master lease and use agreement with the Auksuciai Foundation-USA. The operations of the farm are divided into two divisions- Farm Operations and Research and Education programs. Though most of the farming operations are leased out for income purposes it also is used as a large scale demonstration of new and modern farming technologies. The Research and Education division comprises smaller areas of the farm where research on new crops and technologies are conduced under strict scientific procedures. All information generated from the research projects is considered public information and is available at no charge to local farmers and other interested individuals.

One of the latest successful achievements of the farm is the introduction of edible asparagus (smidrai in Lithuanian).  Lithuanians long ago knew this very useful vegetable, but during the last century it was forgotten.  Now the farm is reintroducing this crop as a very profitable commodity that can be grown by small scale Lithuanian farmers.  The farm have plans of greatly expanding this, and other experimental crops, but unfortunately in the last several years the farm’s supporters have decreased considerably due to the world economic crisis, hence Mr. Sliupas and his team are now at the point where they look for new supporters and investors

Aage Myhre

Editor

Mr. Vytautas Sliupas can be reached at sliupasvyt@sbcglobal.net

The Auksuciai Farm & Forest Center