The agriculture sector of the Donbass Region in eastern Ukraine is facing serious challenges caused by the ongoing military conflict and consequent disruption of the earlier-established value chains. An advisory service potentially could help farmers to adapt to the changed circumstances. To inform the development process, an interview survey was conducted among 80 farmers in the region of their perceived information and advisory needs. Most interviewees stated that many issues affect the performance of their farm. Of all the given farmer × issue ‘interactions’ (i.e. a given farmer facing a specific issue), advice had been sought in around 70 per cent of instances. For any specific issue, most farmers sought advice from several sources. Interviewees attached very high importance to accessibility, convenience, previous personal experience, personal recommendation and confidence in the quality of advice given. Friends and family was the most popular source of advice, with farmers’ organisations, local government agencies and agricultural Internet portals all being consulted by more than half of the interviewees. Many other sources were used by fewer than ten farmers. Twelve interviewees said that they would seek advice from advisory services if this was available. Following the analysis of the questionnaire results, three farmer focus groups were held to help interpret them. We conclude that, even in the absence of a formal advisory service, many farmers in the region are actively acquiring and sharing knowledge and that the agricultural innovation system continues to function despite the disruption caused by the conflict. Any new intervention should recognise this fact and be designed to improve knowledge flows between actors further, rather than to replace those that currently exist.

乌克兰东部的顿巴斯地区的农业部门正面临着持续的军事冲突以及随之而来的较早建立的价值链的破坏所带来的严峻挑战。咨询服务可能会帮助农民适应不断变化的情况。为了告知发展过程，对该地区的80位农民进行了访谈调查，了解他们的信息和咨询需求。大多数受访者表示，许多问题会影响其农场的绩效。在所有给定的农民×问题“互动”中（即给定的农民面临特定问题），大约有70％的案例寻求了建议。对于任何特定问题，大多数农民都从几个来源寻求建议。受访者非常重视可访问性，便利性，以前的个人经历，个人推荐和对所提供建议质量的信心。朋友和家人是最受欢迎的建议来源，一半以上的受访者都在咨询农民组织，地方政府机构和农业互联网门户。不到十个农民使用了许多其他来源。十二名受访者说，如果有的话，他们将从咨询服务中寻求建议。在对调查表结果进行分析之后，举行了三个农民焦点小组来帮助解释它们。我们得出的结论是，即使没有正式的咨询服务，该地区的许多农民仍在积极地获取和分享知识，尽管冲突造成了破坏，但农业创新系统仍在继续运转。