"Food Export Trade" initiated a large-scale scientific study of the production capabilities of the crop production industry on cultivated lands with an area of over 30 million hectares located in the Urals, Siberia and the Far East regions. D.N. Pryanishn

On March 1, 2022 in Novosibirsk, the “Food Export Trade” (part of the New Land Grain Corridor Group of Companies) and the D.N. Pryanishnikov All-Russian Agrochemistry Scientific Research Institute signed a cooperation agreement to conduct the largest sectoral scientific research since the Soviet era.

"Our company initiated a study to confirm the hypothesis of an incremental increase in the production of grain, legumes, and oilseeds in the Urals, Siberia, and the Far East. This unique study, in cooperation with the leading Russian agricultural chemistry research institute, is designed to scientifically confirm agro-industrial hypotheses and provide a potential basis to boost the development of these regions," said Alexei Gradov, NLGC First Deputy General Director.

Thanks to this expertise, the assessment will be performed of the actual production potential of the Urals, Siberia and the Far East regions for the production of grains, leguminous and oilseed spring crops, considering existing opportunities and promising scientific and technical achievements in plant genetics, technologies for targeted agriculture, as well as targeted fertilizers that boost soil efficiency.
Sergey Shkurkin, Head of the D.N. Pryanishnikov All-Russian Agrochemistry Scientific Research Institute, emphasized the practical importance of the upcoming study, "Interaction with the “Food Export Trade” company within the framework of a special mechanism that it introduces - contract farming - will provide for more effective use of the potential of Siberia and the agricultural lands of the three federal districts, aimed at the maximum result."

Support of the contemporary domestic applied science will provide a reasonable environmentally friendly approach to the use of agricultural lands. At the same time, not only technologies matter, but also modern business models adapted to specific conditions, such as the internationally recognized mechanism of contract farming - planned contracting of agricultural crops from agricultural manufacturers and farmers under long-term contracts with an advance payment system.

Contractual agreements determine the types of crops, their volumes, quality criteria and requirements for manufacture technology, quality and safety management and, surely, the cost based on calculated indicators (price formula).
“Food Export Trade” has become one of the first companies in Russia to promote such system of long-term and mutually beneficial cooperation. The approach is unique for the industry, as it provides for medium and long-term planned business activities and manufacture of products for target domestic and foreign markets with specified qualitative and quantitative characteristics and transparent pricing and a sales guarantees," said Karen Ovsepyan, General Director of “Food Export Trade”.

Within the framework of the planned studies, “Food Export Trade” will collect and process original macro-, micro- and field data, including field data on the Urals, Siberia, and the Far East geography, and after that, based on this data, perform zoning, mapping, modeling of the most suitable crops, fertilizers, agrochemistry, and technologies required. Such large-scale sectoral studies have not been performed in these regions since Soviet times; and the fact of science and business cooperation is also significant.

This study is being implemented as part of the resolution and initiatives of the Government of the Russian Federation on the use of agricultural lands and the development of the land reclamation complex for the period from 2022 to 2031, establishment of a sectoral agriculture cluster and determining the development direction, inconsideration of the economic territory specific features of the Siberian Federal District regions, forecast climate change, as well as planned export volumes of the manufactured agriculture products.
As a result of the study, there will also appear a real request for domestic breeding and the question will be answered of how and what crops and in what volumes can be produced on the territory of arable lands of over 30 million hectares, which will become a contribution to the implementation of the Order of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin on the development of measures to support domestic breeding of certain types of crops and livestock being of critical importance for the country's food security.


For reference:
“Food Export Trade” is a part of the New Land Grain Corridor Group of Companies (www.NLGC.ru), performing the implementation of the program of the same name "New Land Grain Corridor", developing an internationally recognized contract farming mechanism in the territory from the South Urals to the Far East, supported by the President of the Russian Federation (Decree No. Пр-1029 dated 26.05.2016), by the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation (Decree No. MM-П11-7227 dated 04.07.2020 "On ensuring the necessary measures of state support for the project"), by the Government of the Russian Federation (Decree No. 2282-р dated 18.08.2021), by the intergovernmental commissions and by the Eurasian Economic Commission.

D.N. Pryanishnikov All-Russian Agrochemistry Scientific Research Institute is a leading sectoral research institute, established in 1931 as an institute of fertilizers and agriculture soil science to solve the problems of the use of chemicals in agriculture.