On the basis of the Belgorod Agrarian State University. V.Ya. Gorin, a federal center for breeding and seed production of agricultural plants may appear. This proposal was made by representatives of agricultural enterprises and the scientific community of the region, the press service of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Belgorod Region reports.
The need to create a center is dictated “primarily by external economic factors” – the need to reduce dependence on the supply of imported varieties and hybrids and, in the future, “to abandon them completely.”
Plant breeding is a priority in the implementation of the import substitution strategy in the Russian Federation.
“I am definitely not going to miss the opportunity to create a center for selection and seed production at the federal level in our region. To get federal funding, we need to have a clear blueprint with a roadmap and a risk map. To agree on the final draft, I propose to convene a working group again in a week, which will include researchers and business representatives.”
Vyacheslav Gladkov – Governor of the Belgorod Region
The regional government noted that the region has “all the necessary infrastructure and favorable conditions” for the creation of the center – a comfortable climate, “rich scientific potential”, a large number of agricultural enterprises and trained specialists.
It is assumed that in addition to the agro-university, the structure of the center will also include seed-growing enterprises of the region and the Belgorod Federal Agrarian Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the regional Ministry of Agriculture will “supervise the work of specialists”. The project is to be defended by the Ministry of Agriculture in order to receive federal funding.
