Business visit of the Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation to Omsk State Agrarian University

On October 18, Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Ksenia Leonidovna Shevelkina, accompanied by Nikolai Valentinovich Drofa, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Processing Industry of the Omsk Region, visited the Agrarian University.

Oksana Viktorovna Shumakova, Rector of the University, and heads of scientific schools and departments made a presentation of the university's scientific and innovative achievements, including feed and food additives, veterinary drugs, and varieties of cereals and legumes suitable for organic farming. Ksenia Leonidovna took part in the official opening of a world-class laboratory for grain quality assessment. This is the only laboratory in Russia that was designed to conduct research on the unique properties of grain crops.

The equipment and content of the laboratory's work make it possible to demonstrate a closed innovation cycle from the process of creating new varieties using advanced genomic technologies to obtaining bakery products with unique functional properties. That is why the tasting of bakery products from the varieties of colored wheat of the Omsk State Agrarian University breeding became an integral part of the opening.

When opening the laboratory, K.L. Shevelkina noted:

"I am very pleased to be present at the opening of a world-class laboratory at Omsk Agrarian University, as there are not many such modern laboratories. We will work within the framework of the federal project "Personnel in Agriculture" to modernize our educational institutions, and we will also cooperate within the framework of the national project on food security to continue equipping our universities, in particular Omsk State Agrarian University. I wish success to the team and new ideas useful for the agricultural producer!".

Rector of Omsk State Agrarian University O.V. Shumakova emphasized:

"We are proud that only two agricultural universities in Russia have such a laboratory for grain quality assessment: the Timiryazev Russian State Agricultural Academy and the Omsk State Agrarian University. This laboratory allows us not only to create varieties for employers' requests, but also makes it possible to manage the quality parameters of the variety, thereby reducing the time of the breeding process."

The Deputy Minister of Agriculture also visited the educational and industrial cluster created under the federal program "Professionalitet". She visited specialized classrooms for agricultural machinery, energy-intensive machinery of the Minsk Tractor Plant, and specialized classrooms for grain harvesting and forage harvesting equipment.

Then a meeting was held on the implementation of the federal project "Personnel in agriculture" in the Omsk region. The event was chaired by Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation K.L. Shevelkina with the participation of the heads of relevant ministries, municipalities, school administration of the Omsk State Agrarian University. The meeting was opened by the head of the regional Ministry of Agriculture N.V. Drofa.

During the year, more than 200,000 employees left the agro-industrial complex in the country. This is a big problem, so the federal project "Personnel in agriculture" was developed. The Ministry plans to open 18,000 agrotechnological classes in the country's schools.

"Now there is a mechanism for providing housing for rent, which can be redeemed after 5 years of work at a rural enterprise for 10% of the cost, and after 10 years — for 1%. The same program is planned for agricultural researchers, those who are going to postgraduate school and plan to further develop in science," said K.L. Shevelkina.

The meeting discussed the main provisions of the future federal project. The proposals were made by representatives of agricultural enterprises of the Omsk region and the education sector. The federal project will be implemented next year. The program includes measures to attract specialists to the implementation of key projects in the field of the agro-industrial complex by providing incentive payments, measures to involve businesses in the modernization of the material and technical base of educational institutions. At the moment, the details of the project are being discussed and preparations for its implementation are underway.

Photo album in the Omsk State Agrarian University VK group