The Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Moscow Region Vladislav Murashov, as part of a delegation, visited the Federal Scientific Center for Vegetable Growing in Odintsovo, the press service of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Moscow Region reports.
The delegation included Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Agrarian Food Policy and Environmental Management Alexei Mayorov, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Moscow Region Denis Frantsuzov, Deputy of the Moscow Regional Duma Sergei Malikov and Deputy Chairman of the Council of Deputies of the Krasnogorsk City District Vitaly Levchenko. During the visit, they inspected the greenhouse complex, the seed processing center and held a meeting on seed production and import substitution.
The main topic of discussion was the increase in the use of the share of seeds near Moscow in vegetable production.
“The main task today is for us to grow vegetable crops exclusively on domestic seeds with a large share of our varieties and hybrids near Moscow. While this is not the case everywhere. We discussed with colleagues a number of proposals on how to increase the percentage of use of our seeds near Moscow by businesses. One of the ideas is to provide science and enterprises with a comprehensive solution, when we can offer not only our domestic seeds, but also fertilizers, as well as plant protection products. This is the format currently used by many of the world's seed companies. A business package solution will also help to achieve a world quality standard for our crops. As for the quality of seeds, we are not inferior in terms of parameters, and somewhere even better than European counterparts,” said Vladislav Murashov, Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Moscow Region.
The Federal Research Center for Vegetable Growing is the leading scientific and methodological center coordinating research on breeding, seed production and cultivation technologies of vegetable and melon crops in the Russian Federation. It is the base organization of the CIS member states for advanced training and retraining of personnel in the field of selection and seed production of vegetables and potatoes.
The Scientific Research Center for Vegetable Growing in Odintsovo has existed since 1920 and is one of the first such institutions in our country.
“One of our main goals is to ensure complete food security. Previously, no one did this, there was simply no such need. It is good that the institute continued to exist and work,” said Sergey Malikov, Deputy of the Moscow Regional Duma.
In the greenhouses of the center, seeds of higher reproductions of more than 1290 varieties and hybrids of 120 types of vegetable, melon and flower crops cultivated in 80 constituent entities of the Russian Federation are grown. The institution is headed by a scientist, Doctor of Sciences Alexei Soldatenko. In total, the company employs more than 450 people, half of whom are researchers from the Russian Academy of Sciences.
“Seed-growing work is now carried out mainly at the expense of extra-budgetary funds, but we see great interest from the business side and are now working on joint measures to increase the use of domestic seeds in vegetable growing,” said Alexei Soldatenko.