Participants of No-Till Conference at Agro-Soyuz, 2012
Aybek Tulgenov, Head of Laboratory at Research and Scientific Institute n.a. Barayev, Kazakhstan:
— We study the issues of farming, crop production and wheat production. We are very much interested in new technologies and we need additional information on No-Till.
We have plenty of land, our climate is dry that’s why No-till is very important for us. This technology is intensively adopted in Kazakhstan now; it is implemented on big area. Many farms have already converted to it. Consequently, we are interested in all types of information about No-till and preferably, first-hand information.
Here you can listen to farmers from Latin America, Brazil and Argentina. They’ve been using zero-tillage for a long time. Their experience is very interesting for us. Ukrainian experience is also valuable.
Yuri Ushurelu, representative of Agriculture support project, Moldova:
— Our delegation here consists of two groups: representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and representatives of IFAD project. This project is supported by the government of Moldova and European Fund residing in Italy. The project includes a program, which is aimed to promote resource and energy-saving technologies in Moldova, i.e. No-Till and Mini-Till. This year 4 demonstration plots have started their operation. They will be a sort of production sites, where any farmer can come and see which technologies are implemented during a specific time period, which field operations are performed, which machines and equipment are used and what the energy consumption is when using this or that technology and/or machinery.
We travel a lot, we look at who does what and which results they reap. We like the conference at Agro-Soyuz, its structure — from larger things to details, from general things to specific. This is what we like. Waiting time is over. Land is land and it requires quick and efficient actions, transition to other technologies. If we do not do this now, we will (and I want to emphasize it) find ourselves in a disastrous situation.
This is very important for us. And the composition of our delegation proves it. You just think of it, the Advisor of the Minister is here and farmers and a group of 5 scientists that represent different agricultural institutes. In Moldova we are very serious about agriculture and I am sure that if we meet in a year and a half, for example, we’ll see a different situation.
Nikolay Kiktenko, farmer, Moldova:
— I have a small farm and I’ve been producing crops for more than 10 years already. I use Mini-Till. This is my first time at Agro-Soyuz. There are many of us from Moldova here: representatives of the Ministry of agriculture, scientists and farmers. Our climate is similar to Ukraine; we experience same problems — water deficit and erosion...
Adoption of No-Till is very important for everybody. I think that’s why so many farmers came to Dnepropetrovsk region from different corners of the world. Some of them covered several thousand kilometers, left their farms where their presence may be needed round the clock. Nobody forced them. It is life that pushes you to alternative technologies; we’ll not survive otherwise. It’s a pity that governments of some CIS countries including Ukraine are so reluctant to adopt resource-saving technologies. Waiting is not good for the country; there is an acute need to change approaches to farming.
The theoretical day (the first day) was very good. The speakers were not well-groomed scientists, which are far away from real production, but real farmers. There is a good expression — brothers-in-arms — and today we listened to real brothers-in-arms, who achieved everything on their own, they experienced all those problems of searching themselves and made a great contribution to No-till promotion all over the world.
I want to say thank you to organizers and the whole team of Agro-Soyuz that put a lot of efforts to make this conference happen. Everything was at the top level. And if an extra loaf of bread appears in each of the countries, represented here in Mayskoye, this will partially be a merit of Agro-Soyuz.