Measures are being taken in Dagestan to develop seed production of vegetable crops

On Thursday, May 25, a meeting on the development of vegetable seed production was held under the leadership of the Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Dagestan Mukhtarbiya Adzhekov.
The event was attended by First Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Dagestan Sharip Sharipov, HEAD of the Federal Agrarian Scientific Center of the Republic of Dagestan Nariman Nimatulaev, heads of structural divisions of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Dagestan, leading vegetable farms, and a number of heads of district agricultural departments. Anatoly Mikhilev, General DIRECTOR of the National Union of Breeders and Seed Growers of RUSSIA, Irina Dubinina, General Director of the Sedek-Domodedovo Research and Production Enterprise, and Anatoly Osikhov, Chief Agronomist of this company , specially arrived to participate in the event .
Opening the event, Mukhtarbiy Adzhekov spoke about the trends in the development of vegetable growing in Dagestan, noting that the area under open ground vegetables in the republic exceeds 40 thousand hectares. A significant part of them falls on cabbage and tomatoes. Protected ground vegetable growing is also developing - more than 700 hectares of greenhouses are concentrated in the region. For the most part, Dagestan vegetable farms purchase seeds from different suppliers, and there are often instances of deliveries of low-quality seeds. In this regard, the leadership of the republic has set the task of developing seed production within the republic.
“The Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Dagestan has established close cooperation with leading seed companies and scientific centers of the country. Certain results have been achieved, the farms are starting to sow with quality seeds. Today we have invited representatives of authoritative organizations at the federal level to work out proposals for expanding the production of vegetable seeds face to face with our farmers. Dagestan has the necessary conditions for seed production; scientific and methodological support for this work is required. We hope that the representatives of the National Union of Breeders and Seed Growers, the Sidek-Domodedovo company will contribute to the solution of the identified issues,” the minister noted.
Representatives of the companies spoke in detail about the directions of their activities, indicated promising areas of cooperation with the farms of the republic, gave examples of already established cooperation with many Dagestan agricultural producers, emphasizing the huge potential and experience of Dagestan in the field of vegetable growing. They expressed their interest in cooperation with Dagestan farmers in strengthening the domestic seed base. The measures that are being taken at the federal level for the development of breeding and seed production of agricultural crops are also noted, the federal law on seed production, a number of other regulatory legal acts of the federal level are working .
First Deputy Minister Sharip Sharipov emphasized that the creation of demonstration sites in different areas of vegetable crops is extremely in demand and relevant. This will allow agricultural producers to evaluate the benefits of varieties and hybrids offered by these companies. Such experience has already been established in the republic with a number of federal companies, the farmers took it with great enthusiasm and sometimes made decisions on the choice of seeds for their economic needs right at such demonstration sites.
In his speech, the head of the Union of Vegetable and Potato Growers of Dagestan, the director of Agrofirma Dag-Agro LLC, Soltansaid Ismailov, outlined in detail the requests of farmers and outlined the areas in which it is desirable to build cooperation.
Proposals for the development of seed production were also made by the head of the FARC RD Nariman Nimatulaev, indicating that he would provide these companies with the necessary scientific support in laying demonstration sites and in carrying out tests in the fields of the Republic of Dagestan.
Many farm managers who spoke at the meeting thanked the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Dagestan for the opportunity to work directly with large companies and expressed their desire to find areas and forms of cooperation.