International science-to-practice conference “Competitive Growth and Efficiency of Agricultural Sector under WTO and CU”

On May 21 in the Tatar Institute of Personnel Development in Agribusiness International Science-to-Practice Conference “Competitive Growth and Efficiency of Agricultural Sector under World Trade Organization and Customs Union” was held.

More than 250 scholars, teachers, postgraduates, directors and specialists in agriculture from leading scientific and research centers of Russia, Belorussia, the Ukraine and Kazakhstan took part in the conference.

First Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Tatarstan Nikolai Titov opened the conference. In his welcome speech he told about the results and achievements as well as the problems and issues of agricultural sector of Tatarstan and about the priorities of its development in the future.

A.M.Gataullin, corresponding member of Russian Academy of Science (Moscow Agrarian Academy, Moscow), presented a paper on “Structural shifts in the agricultural sector as a competitive factor”. Having analyzed in details the development of agriculture in Russia for the last 20 years, he noted some negative trends in the economy. Agriculture has become local; it is developing around big cities, along federal motorways, rivers and railways. There is desertisation, more than 40 million ha of lands are abandoned. There is also a negative trend connected with sectors: only 47.3% of milk, 13% of potato, 17.1% of vegetables are produced by big agricultural organizations, the rest is produced by farmers and personal subsidiary plots, which leads to simplification of technologies. He suggested effective ways of improving the situation with the government support to increase investment attractiveness of agricultural production.

Director of Tatar Science and Research Institute of Agriculture, corresponding member of Academy of Science Marat Tagirov reported on the issues of scientific support under WTO and CU. He emphasized that today the main problem was the lack of natural resources such as water, soil, energy and biodiversity. That is why the main task for science and education is to increase productivity from the cultivated lands. In order to stay competitive on the market, integration is vital both in production and scientific research. He introduced the audience with the unique scientific developments of the institute in the sphere of seed breeding and farming, fodder cropping and arable farming. He paid special attention to the increase of efficiency of seed breeding programs based on the methods of biotechnology and molecular genetics.

Today the institute competes successfully with foreign firms on many aspects. It supplies new sorts, technologies, original seeds which are the base of agriculture.

V.D.Kozlov, Rector of Nizhniy-Novgorod Institute of Personnel Development, noted in his report that the necessity to build effective models of production sensitive to market fluctuation appeared. In order to be competitive it is vital to make decisions quickly and constantly monitor the situation. He touched upon a very important aspect of increasing of curriculum efficiency, distant learning, working personnel in the village.

T.G.Khadeev, Director of “Rosselkhozcenter”, I.A.Gaisin, corresponding member of Academy of Science of the Republic of Tatarstan, A.F. Pashkovskyi, a representative of Agricultural Union of the Ukraine reported on the most important issues on agriculture.

After the plenary session directors of big agricultural manufactures, who actively use the latest technologies, told about their experience in this field. Many of the problems, touched upon at the conference need a further detailed studying.