More than 250 guests visited the AgroTerra Field Day
A Field Day dedicated to soybean production in the Central Chernozem region was held in the Kursk region on 6 September. More than 250 people attended the event: farmers of the region, researchers from agricultural companies, representatives of international breeding and seed production companies, and experts from leading crop production facilities. The event took place near the experimental fields of AgroTerra’, the leader in commercial soybean production in Russia. The company's experimental fields aroused great interest among guests: this year the company's own Research Centre of AgroTerra’ conducted experiments with more than 40 varieties of soybeans, tested more than 35 variants with seeding rates and seeding methods against the background of different herbicides.
The main topic of the Field Day was modern crop cultivation technologies, methods to increase yields and product quality. Representatives of AgroTerra spoke about opportunities for the agribusiness to grow soybeans. During seminars and workshops, Field Day guests discussed the specifics of soybean variety behavior, as well as soybean varieties preferred in the Central Black Earth Region, soybean nutrition and its response to different levels of infestation.
ICAR estimates that Russian soybean exports have more than doubled in the last two years. Hence are the interest in this crop and its increased marginality. In the long term, soybean production in Russia will continue to grow, which is why the quality expertise in soybean production provided by AgroTerra and its partners at the Field Day of the Kursk Region is so in demand.
AgroTerra has been engaged in soybean production since 2012. Today, the area sown by this crop has increased more than 8.8 times and accounts for more than 40% of the company's crop turnover.
‘Interest in soybeans is growing: more and more growers understand the potential of soybeans and go to us for seeds of proven varieties. The yield of this crop is 30% dependent on the quality of the seed material; so AgroTerra uses its own seeds and builds a complete seed production cycle from registration to cleaning and conditioning. We also create our own breeding programme for soybean seeds and launch a seed line in the Kursk region. The local climate allows us not only to grow successfully, but also to create varieties that can provide the maximum yield with the quality we need. We are ready to share our expertise with agricultural producers in the region,’ said Alexander Dashchenko, Director of the AgroTerra Integrator Group.
‘The Central Black Earth Region, which accounts for 40% of consumption of mineral fertilizers produced by PhosAgro in Russia, has de facto become the main soybean producer in the country. End consumers of soybean products are also concentrated here, including livestock and poultry farms, with which PhosAgro also cooperates in the area of feed additives. This is one of the best regions for a major event, devoted to soybean, and we readily accepted AgroTerra's offer to participate in it. In addition to the use of new soybeans and soya cultivation techniques, it is important to pay attention to the consistency and balance of mineral nutrition in the crops. This is particularly important against the background of changing weather and the obvious problem with acidic soils in the region. It is the rational use of complex mineral fertilizers with sulphur, calcium and trace elements that allows us to fully develop the potential of advanced soybeans, effectively manage its yield and obtain consistently high commercial qualities of the final product. The results of applying high performance brands of PhosAgro products here at Russia's largest experimental soybean field confirm this,’ said PhosAgro-Region network CEO Andrey Vovk.
First Deputy Chairman of the Agro-Industrial Complex Committee of Kursk Region Sergey Malakhov noted the region's success in agriculture: ‘We plan to increase soybean production. This is already an important part of our economy. And the fact that we are engaged in it is a very significant and serious position. Our region now has a serious task: to achieve the production level of half a million tons of soybeans, which will be used for processing. And the most important value we have is not only the Kursk black earth soil, but also our people, the field workers.