FAO welcomed by PhosAgro at Field Day event in the Moscow Region

A delegation of the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation (FAOLOR) participated in the Field Day events co-organized at the Agrotechnology-2020 Testing Field in Barybino (Moscow region) by the PhosAgro ^1/ and Pryanishnikov Institute of Agrochemistry.

FAOLOR Director Oleg Kobiakov highlighted the key messages of the FAO flagship publication, the “State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World” (SOFI-2020), emphasizing the contribution of the private sector to multilateral efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal “Ending hunger, ensuring food security and improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agricultural development” (SDG-2).

He also stressed that PhosAgro is FAO’s long-standing and reliable partner. ”This company combines innovation, social corporate responsibility, contribution to science and a strategic, long-term vision of the tasks from a viewpoint of a responsible private entity,” Mr Kobiakov said.

In December 2018, PhosAgro became the first Russian company to sign an agreement on funding an FAO technical assistance project to promote new technologies and knowledge in the field of sustainable agriculture, Oleg Kobiakov recalled.

This project worth $1.2 million was singled out by the Voluntary National Review of Russia’sachievement of the Sustainable Development Goals presented by the Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Maxim Reshetnikov in a video link with the UN headquarters on July 14. The Soil Doctors program that the company co-finances and implements in collaboration with FAO explores the fertility and potential of soils in developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America and addresses the problems of their regeneration.

FAO expects that major Russian companies will follow the PhosAgro example and “support intellectually and financially similar initiatives that are investments in food security, human resources and future generations,” Oleg Kobiakov said.

The Director of the FAO Moscow office agreed with Andrey Guriev, CEO of PhosAgro, who stressed at the opening of the Field Day that Russia could become a guarantor of food security not only for its country, but also for the world. “Russia has every opportunity to be the world’s breadbasket and incubator of qualified personnel for the agricultural sector of developing countries, in particular, applying quotas for training foreign students in Russian agricultural universities,” O. Kobiakov intoned.

The panel discussion focused on ”Global food security: problems and solutions” was supplemented by a familiarization tour of the test fields in Barybino (44 hectares), which presents innovative solutions and the latest technologies for growing such crops as winter and spring wheat, barley, peas, corn, oats, sunflower, rapeseed, soy, flax and potatoes.

On the sidelines of the event, Oleg Kobiakov had brief meetings with the PhosAgro management, President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Sergeev, Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education Sergey Lyulin, Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on agricultural and food policy and environmental management Elena Zlenko and rector of the Timiryazev Academy Vladimir Trukhachev.

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^1/ Company PhosAgro is a Russian vertically-integrated company, which occupies a leading position in the world in terms of volumes of production of phosphate mineral fertilizers, is the world’s largest producer of high-quality of phosphate rock and Russia's only producer of nepheline concentrate.