The company "August", the leading domestic manufacturer of plant protection products, will create a field experimental station in the urban district of Kashira, Moscow region, on an area of 323 hectares. It will become a structural subdivision of the company's research center, which will be built in the city of Chernogolovka. At the new site, it is planned to conduct tests of agricultural technologies that combine the study of chemical and biological plant protection products with the capabilities of modern agricultural machinery, the achievements of selection and agricultural chemistry. First of all, the station intends to develop a block of field crops, secondly - a block of potatoes, and work with other crops is also planned.
In the urban district of Kashira, a field experimental station of the "August" company will be created - on this territory a Russian manufacturer of chemical plant protection products received a long-term lease of agricultural land with an area of 323 hectares. At the site of the new station, multifactorial studies of modern agricultural technologies will be carried out, involving the use of chemical and biological plant protection products in combination with the capabilities of modern agricultural technology, as well as achievements in the field of breeding and agrochemistry. The studies will take into account such factors as plant nutrition, seeding rates, operating modes of spraying equipment, interaction of varieties and hybrids, etc. The ultimate goal of the station's specialists will be to bring competitive and practically justified crop protection technologies to the market. Scientific activities will be carried out on the territory of the station; it is planned to attract leading agricultural universities of the country to cooperation.
“All research on the territory of the station will be carried out in accordance with the approved Russian and future world standards,” says Dmitry Belov, head of the product development department of Firm “August” JSC. - It should be noted that there are practically no field experimental stations of the level that we are laying in Russia: experimental production stations at research institutes and universities have been largely lost, and the corresponding divisions of multinational corporations working in our industry are located abroad at their headquarters - apartments, while we have mainly demonstration sites. We would like to reverse this situation in our country ”.
A laboratory building will be built on the territory of the station, which will house an office, premises for employees, the laboratory itself for the initial acceptance of samples and premises for their storage. In addition, buildings will be erected for storing agricultural machinery, seeds, fertilizers, as well as for packaging plant protection products immediately before use.
The station specialists will use two approaches to research: these are small-plot randomized experiments with a plot area of 20 sq. m and large-scale experiments, allowing to demonstrate the effect of one or another agricultural technology on large areas.
“We will start with spring crops - in particular, with corn, wheat, barley, rapeseed, then we will start sowing winter rye, winter wheat and winter rapeseed. Further, we will develop the site with the help of such crops as sunflower, soybeans, flax, peas - gradually we must reach 15 main crops. Thus, we will have the first block of field crops. The second will be a separate block of potatoes, and in the future we plan to work with other crops as well, ”says Sergey Pozdnyakov, head of the group at the field experimental station of the August company.
The location of the experimental station next to the main agronomic artery of Russia - the M-4 “Don” highway, which connects the domestic “granary” regions with Moscow, facilitates access to the demonstration sites of the “Augusta” for partners and clients. Construction on the territory of the station will begin in 2021; pre-fabricated modular structures will be used for the laboratory building and other structures. It is assumed that the first experiments at the new site will be laid already in the current agricultural season.