Agro-consulting laboratories of the company "August" have become the most important component of the information technology support that the domestic manufacturer of plant protection products provides to farmers in the regions of Russia. The purpose of agro-consulting is to provide farmers with complete information about what is happening in a particular field and inside plants, which is necessary for making accurate decisions and ultimately obtaining a crop in planned volumes. The importance of conducting laboratory research and providing consulting assistance for the implementation of efficient agricultural production is especially growing in the face of a shortage of agronomic personnel in the industry, both for small farms and for holdings. In the spring of 2022, a new stage of development began for the Augusta agricultural laboratory system: on March 25, the Agroanalysis-Don laboratory in the city of Azov, Rostov Region, successfully passed the accreditation procedure for compliance with national standards in the Federal Accreditation Service. In the future, other testing laboratories of "August" will undergo the same procedure.
“One of the key benefits our customers will benefit from is the ability to use the results of tests conducted at our center, not only to find out what fertilizers are needed to maintain soil fertility in a particular area or what diseases threaten crops. Now the conclusions of Agroanalysis-Don as an accredited laboratory can be used at the official level, when interacting with executive authorities and supervisory authorities: for example, when applying for state subsidies, when conducting an agrochemical survey as part of state monitoring of the fertility of agricultural land " , - explains Elena Shuplyak, head of the Agroanalysis-Don Center for Agronomic Research.
Laboratory "Agroanalysis-Don" confirmed that its work complies with the interstate standard GOST ISO/IEC 17025-2019. General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories. The scope of accreditation includes laboratory studies on 109 indicators: these are analyzes of seeds of various agricultural and flower crops, forage grasses, planting material, analysis of natural water for irrigation and preparation of nutrient and working solutions, soil analysis for indicators necessary to calculate the need for fertilizers, analysis of peat and products of its processing, analysis of greenhouse soils, organic fertilizers, mineral fertilizers, etc.
“The quality of our research, the equipment of the laboratory with the required equipment and the qualifications of the staff were confirmed by experts from the national accreditation system. To successfully complete the procedure, we improved some of the premises and conducted additional staff training, updated equipment. The specialists of our center independently developed and implemented a modern quality management system that covers all our activities, including sampling, testing, risk management, equipment, reagents, documentation, internal laboratory control and audit, external quality control of research in the form of participation in interlaboratory comparative tests,” says Elena Shuplyak.
The head of the laboratory notes that every year the number of analyzes that are carried out in it at the request of farmers increases significantly. In view of this level of demand, Agroanalysis-Don is working at its maximum potential and the next step in the development of the center is expansion. “Thinking among employees of both small companies and large holdings is now changing. The rise in prices for products necessary for agricultural production, for example, for fertilizers, leads to the fact that farmers are beginning to be more conscious in their approach to growing crops. Here, in the south, there are a lot of vegetable producers who understand that instead of using fertilizers by eye, it is more profitable to make the necessary analyzes, calculate the mineral nutrition and then work according to the schedule based on the actual state of the soil; Phytopathological analyzes can optimize protection costs by making a decision based on a specific list of detected pathogens. Thus, both fertilizers and plant protection products are used more efficiently, the cost is reduced, the yield and product quality are increased. The cost of laboratory research is becoming more and more economically justified,” Elena Shuplyak sums up.