UNESCO announces rye bread to be the international cultural heritage

Rye is a national Russian crop, which has been providing the country with nutritious food for a number of centuries. Back in the day there were about 28 million ha of lands sowed with winter rye in Russia and the country was called “the rye empire”. Being the easiest crop to grow among all grains, it was the most economically efficient to crow rye in harsh natural and climatic conditions, given that agro-climatic characteristics of the Russian midland are ideal for this crop.

Owing to its natural characteristics, in comparison with other grain crops rye has stronger influence on the human organism concerning modern diseases such as obesity and type II diabetes. Owing to a group of bioactive substances as components of the crop, there is scientific evidence of antibacterial, antioxidant, hypoglycemic and some other important therapeutic effects, which decrease risks of blood-stroke, cancer and other diseases.

Despite obvious advantages of rye (high tolerance for winter conditions and drought resistance, loose requirements to the cultivation intensity, the ability to grow in the regions with poor soils and unfavourable climatic conditions, especially in northern regions of the country), the lands sowed with rye keep reducing. This is due to the scarcity of domestic grain procession and its not very efficient use.

Russian can become a stable exporter of winter rye. In the republic of Tatarstan winter rye is the most reliable grain crop. It is well-adapted to the growth environment and is characterized with comparatively loose requirements to soil minerals. There is big importance of rye owing to its ability to produce profound crops under less favourable for other grain crops natural and climatic conditions. Owing to these advantages and good agricultural practice there is a stable harvest of rye year after rye and moreover it exceeds the harvest of spring grain crops.

Including winter rye into sowing campaigns brings a good agro-technical effect. Rye prevents weed growing; a field after rye is clean compared with other grain crops. Owing to a vast root system, rye brings great benefit to the soil. There is some evidence that rye cleans the soil of very dangerous blasts – nematodes. That is why a lot of gardeners sow rye on their garden plots to clean the soil of blasts and prevent diseases.

A good adaptability to produce profound crops on soils of different fertility, agro-technical importance in the rotation characterize rye as a crop of low economic risks. That is why in order to prevent bad years in crop production it is necessary to carry out modernization on the areas for rye sowing.

Among all winter grain crops rye is the most tolerant to the winter.

Following the rules of agricultural technology for winter rye cultivation, one can get profound and stable rye yield.

At the conference of the UNO Organization for Food and Agriculture it was suggested announcing 2016 to be an international rye year.