Digitizing in all areas

The Central Russian Economic Forum (CEF) has started in Kursk.

The main activities of SEF-2019 take place in the Joint Coordinating Committee, and the sites of KSU, Southwest State University (SWSU), the Youth Palace and the Kursk Chamber of Commerce and Industry are also involved. The theme of the forum is ‘Digital Region’. About three thousand people take part in the work of the SEF. The South-Western State University hosts the Central Russian Economic Forum ‘Digital Volunteering’. The site has made it possible to create information products useful for society and at the same time to hold a competition for young programmers. The regional Youth Palace hosted the Digital Tourism strategic session. The session participants discussed how the region's tourism industry will develop under conditions of an all-absorbing digitalization, and how regional tourism facilities can be integrated into digital platforms.

Several relevant topics were discussed simultaneously at the site of Kursk State University on the opening day of SEF-2019. One of the most interesting topics, both in terms of content and level of heated discussion, was the round table ‘Digital Transformations in the Regional Agricultural Sector’. As Sergei Kosogor, representative of the Ministry of Agriculture, noted, two years of intensive digitalization development in the industry have been a difficult process but worth its costs and efforts. The task set by the President of the country for the agricultural sector is also worthy of continuing to build up its export potential, which already exceeds the country's sales of weapons systems by profitability. The prospect is to generate 46 billion dollars in revenues. The digitalization of the agricultural sector will ensure this figure to a large extent. It should also be noted that representatives of the federal center expressed interest in the SEF-2019 itself, where one can hear directly the opinions of representatives of all branches of the industry, up to the grassroots.

But does the digitalization of the agro-industrial complex take root in our Kursk soil? It turns out that it is not just taking root, but has long been yielding results. Alexei Zolotarev, Deputy Governor, spoke about this in his speech. ‘We are not only thinking, we are doing and have already done a lot in terms of digitalization,’ said Alexei Mikhailovich. This can be well seen in the example of crop production in the region. The system of precision farming introduced by Kursk Region inhabitants at thousands of enterprises has long been the main condition for production efficiency. And as soon as the integrated high-tech agricultural management system, which includes global positioning technologies (GPS), geographic information systems (GIS), became operational, resource savings of 20-30 per cent appeared everywhere. Hence, there is the growth in cereal yields - over 50 centners per hectare - and the second highest yields per hectare in the country. And most importantly, the ‘locomotive of the regional economy’ represented by its agro-industrial complex is still only increasing its pace going to meet the ambitious task set by the head of the region Roman Starovoit: to raise the gross yield of grain from 5 to 6 million tons in three years. Yes, digitalization involves significant costs, but experience shows that new technologies will pay off in a maximum of three years, and the regional industry’s profit of 100 billion roubles is another proof of this.

The speech delivered at the round table by the head of the Seed production Group of companies AgroTerra, Thomas Dorenvendt, has reminded to the Kursk agrarians that now it is necessary to position themselves not only in competition, say, with Krasnodar territory. Maybe a few years ago it would have seemed like a fairy tale within the walls of Kursk State University, but today the task of driving several tractors from an operator's tablet sitting on the edge of a field is already seen as a close reality. By the way, it was interesting to hear an expert's opinion on the relationship between business and the state. According to Mr. Dorenwendt, the following tasks should fall on officials: creating infrastructure and an efficient weather service, and controlling the use of chemicals. The three weeks of this summer's drought, which our meteorologists had not predicted in advance, have once again reminded us that Thomas is right about this too. Maria Koneva, Irina Storozhenko, Petr Gusev