Udmurtia invites Belarus to consider the possibility of creating a joint breeding and seed-growing center for potato and flax. The parties also intend to establish and develop cooperation in the field of training for agriculture. All this was discussed during the talks at the beginning of this week of the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Belarus Vladimir Grakun with the Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Udmurt Republic Olga Abramova.
The delegation of the Udmurt Republic was interested in the Belarusian experience in the selection and seed production of potatoes and flax. Despite the fact that potatoes are one of the traditional and widely cultivated crops in Udmurtia, most of the seeds are imported from outside the region. Udmurt producers are interested in developing their own seed production.
As Olga Abramova noted, Udmurtia highly appreciates the work of Belarusian scientists on the creation and breeding of new varieties of potatoes, and proposed to consider the possibility of creating a joint selection and seed center in the field of potato growing. Negotiations on this issue continued at the Scientific and Production Center of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus for Potato and Horticulture. The delegation of the Udmurt Republic also visited the Scientific and Production Center for Agricultural Mechanization and the state enterprise "Experimental Plant". Here they got acquainted with the Belarusian developments in the field of agricultural machinery for planting, post-emergence processing, harvesting and preparation for the sale of root crops.
Another important issue of the meeting of representatives of the two departments was the discussion of cooperation in the field of education and retraining of personnel for the agro-industrial complex. Experts of the Ministry of Agriculture of Udmurtia studied the experience of their Belarusian colleagues in developing a vocational education system and suggested discussing the creation of a joint international agricultural school with webinars, exchange of experience, and internships at enterprises of Udmurtia and Belarus. In 2019, the first agricultural classes opened in Udmurtia, while in Belarus such a project is already being successfully implemented - in 2018-2019, 400 agricultural classes were opened in general secondary education institutions, in which more than 2,4 thousand children of 10-11 grades study. This allows schoolchildren to get an idea of agricultural production and decide on a profession, and farms - to choose candidates from graduates for training on the basis of targeted training.
Source: Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Udmurt Republic