President Serdar Berdimuhamedov received Thursday (15 Jun) Deputy Chairman of the Intergovernmental Coordinating Council on Seed Production of the Commonwealth of Independent States, President of the Seeds Association Ivan Kuzmin.
Ivan Kuzmin stressed the fruitful nature of the interaction of the CIS ICCSP with Turkmenistan, which is implementing fundamental reforms in the agro-industrial complex. The day before, he visited an Experimental Seed Farming Association in the Akhal province, where he met with the National Leader of the Turkmen people, Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.
President Serdar Berdimuhamedov stressed that currently ensuring food security, increasing the productivity of the agro-industrial complex and rational use of available resources are urgent tasks all over the world. Turkmenistan attaches great importance to the development of agriculture, and large-scale measures are being taken to turn agriculture into a high-tech sector open to innovative solutions and ideas.
Scientists and researchers in Turkmenistan are aiming to boost agricultural crop yields, implement a scientific crop rotation, and increase agricultural product production. Turkmenistan is open to broad international cooperation and exchange of best practices in the agro-industrial sector.
Turkmenistan also aims to continue fruitful partnership with the CIS ICCSP, offering to coordinate joint activities in the field of selection and variety testing, taking into account soil and climatic conditions.
It was also noted that there are ample opportunities for organizing advanced training courses and retraining of specialized personnel. In this regard, Turkmenistan’s readiness to consider specific proposals of the CIS ICCSP to deepen productive cooperation was confirmed.
In turn, Kuzmin noted that Turkmenistan has a great potential to increase the grain production and its supplies to other countries. It was also emphasized that Turkmenistan, which has solved the issue of food security in a short period of time, demonstrates its unwavering commitment to the principles of constructive cooperation and mutual support in this area.
Russian scientist says it is possible to create a genetic seed bank in Turkmenistan
During his visit to Ashgabat, Deputy Chairman of the Intergovernmental Coordinating Council on Seed Production of the CIS Ivan Kuzmin held a meeting at the Turkmen Agricultural University.
Ivan Kuzmin is a world-famous scientist in the agricultural sphere, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), a man who devoted his whole life to the development of selection and increasing the fruitfulness of various types of crops, winner of 35 honorary state awards, including the Order of Turkmenistan “Bitaraplyk”. The scientist has been cooperating with Turkmenistan for more than 15 years.
“From the point of view of the development of scientific cooperation in the seed sector, as a scientist, I would suggest Turkmenistan to open a genetic bank here. Given the natural conditions of the country, it would be an effective project,” Kuzmin shared in an interview with the Voice of the CIS radio.
“In this regard, Turkmenistan has every opportunity to cooperate fruitfully with the National Grain Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences named after P. P. Lukyanenko. As of today, this institution has developed 290 varieties of wheat and 450 varieties of leguminous crops,” he added.
Touching on the impact of climate change on grain production, Kuzmin noted that he has proposals on this issue.
“This year Turkmenistan has received a good wheat harvest, I visited the lands, saw rich fields and full-fledged ears. However, it is necessary to think about tomorrow. In this regard, I think it would be advisable to increase volume of seeds of the new crop for sowing needs. To create a reliable insurance stock and conditions for its storage,” the scientist said.
According to Kuzmin, due to challenging climate conditions, high yields are not anticipated in other grain-producing countries this year and in upcoming years.
Therefore, he continued, “seed stocks for sowing should be much more than 15% of the total demand, as we recommended earlier.” ///nCa, 16 June 2023
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