The Year of Millets – 2023. An FAO “plot” in the Kursk Region: growing millets with and without fertilizers

On 16 August, the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation made a field visit to the Kursk Region, one of the breadbaskets of the Russian Black Earth Region. A meeting with the representatives of the Scientific Research Institute of Agro-Industrial Production, Kursk State Agricultural Academy, and the largest Russian producer of fertilizers – PhosAgro Company – took place in the village Cheryomushki in the Kursk Region on the trial field of the Federal Agricultural Kursk Research Centre.

The discussion revolved around the results of an experiment within the framework of the International Year of Millets – 2023 dedicated to the technology of mineral nutrition of the “Sputnik” millet variety (the Federal Scientific Centre for Pulses and Cereals provided seeds and PhosAgro provided fertilizers).

Igor Shpakov, FAO Moscow Office Consultant, informed about the main objectives of the International Year of Millets – 2023 declared by the UN General Assembly, and about this Year’s events in Russia:

“The main goal of the Year is to raise people’s awareness of the production and diversity of millets’ usage, their nutritional properties and exceptional benefits for human health, as well as the ability to grow these unpretentious crops in adverse and changeable climatic conditions, FAO is the main agency of the UN system overseeing the Year on the planet.

Millets are among the oldest agricultural crops, and they were widely grown around the world in the last century. However, millets’ production has been noticeably reduced recently, including in Russia, where their final product is widely used in traditional cuisine recipes. 30 years ago, the acreage under millets in Russia was two million hectares, the harvest reached two million tonnes, and today they have decreased many folds and do not exceed 250-300 thousand hectares.

Millets in Russia are among the most affordable cereals. They are included in the list of socially significant goods, and their prices are the subject of monitoring by the Federal State Statistics Service. Millets, in addition to the fact that they have excellent taste qualities, are considered to be the basic elements of a healthy diet: they are gluten-free and have a low glycemic index.”

Igor Shpakov informed that at the initiative of the FAO Moscow Office, a national committee for the Year of Millets was established at the site of the Federation Council Committee on Agriculture and Food Policy and Environmental Management. “The Committee adopted a detailed action plan with a wide range of partners – government agencies, academia, the private sector, public organizations. Among the activities of this action plan there are a scientific symposium, a student “broomcorn millet”, promotions in retail, field experiments with Russian varieties of millets and popularization of dishes with millet in the press, on radio and television. This plan is being successfully implemented.”

The FAO expert expressed special gratitude to PhosAgro, which, along with the Timiryazev Academy (State Agrarian University – Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy), supported the initiative to conduct field experiments with the planting of millets. “The research in the Kursk Region will reveal the optimal options for mineral nutrition of millets to increase their yield in this natural climatic zone. We hope that the results obtained will make a tangible contribution to the popularization of millets in Russia, so undeservedly forgotten, and will also create conditions for the introduction of sustainable technologies for growing this crops,” concluded Igor Shpakov.

Common millet is a new crop for the southern forest–steppe zone of the Kursk Region, said Vladimir Lazarev, Head of the Scientific Research Institute of Agro–Industrial Production – the scientific division of the Kursk Federal Agrarian Scientific Centre.

“Millets are important, necessary, and very promising agricultural crops, which in the conditions of the Kursk Region can produce high and stable yields,” Vladimir Lazarev stressed. “We have an average of 550-560 mm of rain per year, fertile soils – black soils with a high content of humus (up to 5-6%), alkaline hydrolyzable nitrogen, and potassium – the most important components of productivity. At the same time, here the content of sulfur accessible to plants is generally insufficient.”

The Kursk agronomist noted the special importance of working out agricultural technologies of millets’ cultivation, including mineral nutrition. Vladimir Lazarev said in conclusion that “economic conditions and the interest of the commodity producers in the cultivation of these important agricultural crops are, above all, mainly necessary in order for the millet crops to take their rightful place in the Kursk Region.”

Vladimir Nosov, Head of the Сompetence Сentre JSC “Apatit”, said that the millet nutrition programme developed by PhosAgro, taking into account soil fertility and yields achievable in local conditions, provides for the introduction of macronutrients in the amount of 50 kg/ha of nitrogen, 30 kg/ha of phosphorus and 30 kg/ha of potassium.

“On poor soils, the contribution of fertilizers to increasing yields is very high. The average yield of millets in Russia is quite low. Due to the correct choice of agricultural machinery and mineral nutrition, millets’ production in our country can be significantly improved,” the expert concluded.

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Photo: ©FAO/Vladimir Mikheev

During the meeting held on the same day with Alexander Musyal, Rector of the Kursk State Agrarian University (the Kursk SAU), promising areas of cooperation between the university and the FAO Moscow Office were discussed.

The Rector said that the partnership of the Kursk State Agrarian University with PhosAgro includes conducting field research with gratuitously allocated modern fertilizers: “Field research serves as a good practical basis for students’ term projects and theses. We successfully cooperate in other areas: the PhosAgro Educational Centre is equipped and operating; students attend the PhosAgro online lecture hall; participate in interuniversity conferences to exchange experiences on agricultural technologies of crop cultivation, which the millet project is aimed at improving.”

The parties agreed that the conducted field experiment within the framework of the International Year of Millets – 2023 could become a starting point for further development of cooperation.

THE BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The United Nations General Assembly declared 2023 the International Year of Millets. 

In order to popularize these important and unique crops, the FAO Moscow office, PhosAgro, in cooperation with the Kursk Federal Agrarian Research Centre and the Federal Scientific Centre for Pulses and Cereals, initiated and implemented a project to develop sustainable agricultural technologies for growing millets.