Climate, soil health and agriculture technologies
National Movement for Conservation Agriculture
On the 17-18 June the city of Samara, Russian Federation, hosted the 6th annual conference „Climate, soil health and agriculture technologies“ organised by the National Movement for Conservation Agriculture together with the German-Russian forum, St. Petersburg dialogue (https://petersburger-dialog.ru/). The conference has been supported by the Russian Ministry of Agriculture and it has already become a platform for an open dialogue for the representatives of the industry, businessmen, researchers and officials to discuss the major challenges and prospects of the Conservation Agriculture development in Russia and in the world in general.
The conference is organised to attract the social and political attention to the soil crisis and to discuss possible practical steps to preserve the fertility of Russian soils and to improve the production quality for the sake of the national and international health as Russia today is considered one of the largest grain exporters.
This year the major topics of the conference included soil carbon, modern biological treatments and application of drones with hyperspectral imaging in agriculture.
On the first day the general issues of the adoption of Conservation Agriculture in Russia and in the world in general were discussed. The Ministers of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, the Samara Region, the Director of FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation underlined the role of Conservation Agriculture for the global community.
The next topic covered on the first day was the role of biological treatments in restoring soil health. Russian experts from the scientific and business community underlined the necessity to build on the soil internal health rather than overusing chemicals. Their ideas were supported and reinforced by such foreign experts as Roberto Peiretti, microbiologist Kris Nichols and Gabe Brown.
The second day was devoted to soil carbon, carbon cycle in agriculture and agricultural carbon markets. Both Russian and foreign speakers discussed the importance of carbon for soil health sequestration of green house gases that is necessary for combatting climate change. The speakers from US and Canada who themselves participated in establishing carbon markets in their countries and selling carbon credits shared their experience.
And the third topic was the application of drones with hyperspectral imaging to monitor the fields and regulate the planting activities. A field day was organised where guests could test the real application of technology and see the results.
The conference gathered specialists in the area of Conservation Agriculture from 11 countries including Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, USA, Great Britain, Canada, Brazil, Italy, Germany and China. The business community was represented by Gazprom, Uralchem, Nornickel, Tatneft and other companies. The number of guests that have been present online during the conference amounted to 350 unique users from ten countries.
The conference provided the Russian researchers, officials, business community representatives and farmers the latest materials in the area of Conservation Agriculture that would promote the adoption of these practices in the country.
The Conference is an annual event organised by a non-profit organisation National Movement for Conservation Agriculture in Russia that was established in 2003 in order to spread the technologies of conservation agriculture in Russia thus decreasing the negative impact of traditional agriculture on climate and soil. Our mission is to make the knowledge on the Conservation Agriculture technologies available for farmers in Russia and to foster the research in the field so to make the practice widely acceptable in the country.
The Movement is open for the cooperation with organisations and experts in the area of Conservation Agriculture to do everything possible to spread the technology in Russia and across the globe for the sake of our soil and future generations. We would be happy for any type of cooperation and we can be contacted by email: info@rmrl.ru.
