The prospects for the development of agricultural science in Siberia were considered at the meeting of the Presidium of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The results of the SFSCA RAS activities and prospects for the development of agricultural science, as well as international and intersectoral cooperation were considered at the field meeting of the Presidium of SB RAS in Krasnoobsk.
Kirill Sergeyevich Golokhvast, Director, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Science in Biology, made a report on the activities and development prospects of the SFSCA RAS.
"Our strategic goal is to create a world scientific center in the field of agriculture and develop the existing scientific and technological potential of the SFSCA RAS to ensure modernization and sustainable technological national-oriented development of the agro-industrial complex of Siberia and the Far East," Kirill Golokhvast formulated the main task.
The head of the Center noted that through focused work it was possible to restore the activities of some regional branches. Today, the SFSCA RAS includes 14 research institutes in the Siberian and Far Eastern Federal Districts, 6 separate laboratories, including youth laboratories, and the necessary infrastructure: a special design and engineering bureau, breeding and seed production center, shared knowledge center and experimental farms. The total number of employees is more than 1093 people, including 4 academicians of the RAS, 2 corresponding members of the RAS, one corresponding member of the RAE, 48 doctors of science and 138 candidates for doctoral degree.
Speaking about the work of the branches, Kirill Golokhvast emphasized the specialization of each of them determined by regional peculiarities. Thus, for the SFSCA RAS (Novosibirsk) these are soybeans, perennial and annual grasses, clover, rape, radish, oats, wheat, barley, rye, millet. Siberian Research Institute of Agriculture and Peat (Tomsk) - flax, potatoes, oats, wheat, barley, perennial and annual grasses; Irkutsk Research Institute of Agriculture - wheat, barley, oats, rye, millet, triticale, peas, vetch, rape, clover, perennial and annual grasses; Buryat Research Institute of Agriculture - wheat, barley, oats, buckwheat, Sudan grass, vetch, rape, corn, sown peas, alfalfa, sainfoin.
SFSCA RAS actively interacts with the producers of agricultural products: conducts research in accordance with the customer's objectives, creates development programs for individual sectors or for the regions, districts and specific farms, is engaged in various types of expertise and analysis (fodder, meat, milk, soil, water, peat, etc.), carries out diagnosis, prevention and treatment of diseases in veterinary medicine.
"The list of our products includes original and elite seeds, seedlings, sprouts, vegetables and berries, fertilizers and plant protection products, including organic, milk, preparations, biopreparations and test systems for animals, feed additives and fodder, agricultural machinery, including prototypes and experimental samples, as well as technologies directly developed in the SFSCA RAS," specified Kirill Golokhvast.
Experimental production farms are used as testing grounds for the created technologies. Animal fodder cultivation and experimental seed production are being carried out in the SFSCA RAS located in close proximity to the Elitnoye experimental farm on an area of more than 2.4 thousand hectares. "The fields are fully integrated into the GIS system, every segment of the land is registered," emphasized Kirill Golokhvast.
The SFSCA RAS and the Tomsk State University are developing cooperation within the framework of the advanced engineering school "Agrobiotech". Its goal is to contribute to the training of highly qualified personnel for agro-, bio- and eco-technologies. "The profile and logic of agriculture is changing, it has been a consumer of new technologies recently, including unmanned systems, precision farming systems, so we need appropriate specialists", - said the head of the SFSCA RAS. The Small Agricultural Academy has been operating in Krasnoobsk since 1979, and the classes in it start from school. Children conduct their research and get special knowledge in the laboratories and experimental plots under the guidance of the Center's scientists. Over the years, about 600 people have passed through the SAA, almost 400 of them graduated from the Novosibirsk State Agrarian University, more than 260 are specialists of the agro-industrial complex, 63 have defended candidate's theses, 9 - doctoral dissertations.
Kirill Golokhvast elaborated on the interaction with foreign partners, primarily from Mongolia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and other CIS countries. He noted that the achievements of the Soviet school of agro-biotechnology in many respects became determinant in the development of agro-industrial complex of these countries and SFSCA RAS is seen as the successor of the VASKHNIL - the main agricultural research institute of the USSR.
Another report at the meeting of the Presidium of SB RAS was made by the Director of the Institute of Radiobiology of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Candidate of Science in Medicine Igor Anatolievich Cheshik. He told about the main directions of activity of the Institute of Radiobiology of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, among which there is an agrarian one, concerning the assessment and forecast of expected doses received by the population in the process of agricultural work in the territories contaminated with radionuclides, as well as the analysis of the impact of such contamination on plants and animals, the use of new sorbent feed additives and so on.
Kirill Golokhvast added that SFSCA RAS and IRB NASB have been jointly working on two dissertations. One of them is aimed at studying soybean samples from different locations with different levels of pollution to clarify how the genetics of the plant changes over the years.
Summarizing the results of the meeting of the Presidium of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Chairman of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Valentin Nikolayevich Parmon highly appreciated the work done and development prospects of the SFSCA RAS. He also noted the importance of cooperation between the Center and its foreign partners. "It is necessary to look at the directions that are considered priority, to look for colleagues, to create common research programs", - commented Valentin Parmon. - Ensuring food security of Russia, development of agro-industrial production, transition to new, innovative agricultural technologies are priority directions of the state policy.
The task of the agricultural science is to provide the agro-industrial complex with everything necessary for its activity at the present stage, to outline the prospects and ways to achieve the results that will determine the quality and standard of living of Russian people", - concluded the Chairman of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.