Rustem Khamitov met with Director of All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Corn Vladimir Sotchenko

UFA, 18 August 2015. /Bashinform News Agency, Iliya Spiridonov/. On August 17, the Head of Bashkortostan Rustem Khamitov held a meeting on the increase of corn production with the Director of the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Corn RAAS Vladimir Sotchenko. It was attended by members of the Government RB, as well as heads of municipalities and heads of leading enterprises of agriculture.

“The topic of our today's conversation is cultivation of corn in the republic. We are interested in it. We are looking forward to your recommendations, even your lessons in this part, because in the last 10 years, something has happened with production of corn in the republic. From more than 200 thousand hectares we dropped to 40 thousand hectares. Now with heroic efforts of the Ministry of Agriculture it was restored to 80 thousand hectares. But this is not enough”, Rustem Khamitov said.

Vasily Sotchenko noted that currently 4 million hectares of corn was cultivated in Russia, including 2.5 million hectares corn for grain and 1.54 million hectares for silage. In recent years, the production of grain corn increased by 2.5 times in the country.

In this connection, an issue of quality of purchased seed is topical. According to Vasily Sotchenko, in Russia today, the annual demand constitutes 100 million tons of corn seeds. 40 thousand tons are produced in the country, 40 thousand tons are imported from abroad. The remaining 20 percent are the seeds of unknown origin, which demonstrate the poor quality of the resulting product.

Currently, All-Russian Research Institute of Corn annually produces between 10 and 16 thousand tons of hybrids, but only 2.5 thousand tons are supplied on sale. To meet the needs of farmers with high quality seeds in Russia it is planned to establish a large plant on public-private partnership with a production capacity of 10 thousand tons at the scientific research institute. Since the climatic conditions do not allow Bashkortostan producing corn seed, the Institute is ready to cooperate with the republic in this direction.

According to Vasily Sotchenko generally Bashkortostan has a favourable climate for increased corn production. The republic’s own resource of fertilizers in the form of poultry farms waste will contribute to development in this direction.

The Head of Bashkortostan offered to enter into a cooperation agreement with the All-Russian Research Institute of Corn, providing scientific, organizational and methodological support and training activities.

During the meeting, the parties agreed to sign the document in the course of the training workshop, which is expected to take place in October 2015. In addition, the Research Institute is planning to plant pilot demonstration plots of corn in Sterlitamak and Aurgazy regions and to present them in the next year in the joint seminar "Field Day".

Rustem Khamitov instructed the Ministry of Agriculture to study the options of state agricultural enterprises, which will be engaged in cultivation of corn. In his opinion, this will not only increase production, but also diversify agriculture in different areas, including in the Trans-Urals.