Representative of SSAU at the International Conference on Food Security

Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov hosted the Third Annual International Conference on Food Security in the Eurasian region. The event was attended by over 170 representatives from Russia, the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium and the countries of Central Asia. The conference participants, representing regional and international organizations, research and educational institutions, government authorities and food companies, discussed the transformation of agricultural and food systems to enhance food security and nutrition in Eurasia, as well as possible solutions to problems in this area.

The conference was organized by the Eurasian Center for Food Security of Moscow State University (ECFS), the World Bank (World Bank Group), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) with the support of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation.

A delegate to the conference from the Faculty of Economics of Stavropol State Agrarian University was an associate professor of the Department of Economic Theory and Economics of Agro-Industrial Complex, Ph.D., associate professor Olga Alexandrovna Cherednichenko.

Sergei Alekseyevich Shoba, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Eurasian Center for Food Security of Moscow State University, addressed the participants at the opening ceremony, stressing the relevance of the issues under consideration and the importance of interaction among the countries of the Eurasian region on food security issues.

At the plenary session, State Duma Deputy Gennady Vasilyevich Kulik, the author of the well-known monograph Food Security: From Dependence to Independence, made a report. In his speech, he spoke about the development of practical measures to improve the agrarian policy of the state, the problems of technical re-equipment of agricultural producers and the need to create domestic technologies for the production of elite seeds and breeding products in various areas of crop and livestock production.

The next speaker, chief researcher at the Center for Agri-Food Policy of the Institute for Applied Economic Research, RANEPA, professor, honored scientist of the Russian Federation Vasily Yakimovich Uzun outlined the main results of the implementation of the Doctrine of Food Security of Russia, as well as the proposed directions for its improvement.

Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Dean of the Biological Faculty of Moscow State University, Mikhail Petrovich Kirpichnikov in a joint report with S.А. Shoba spoke about the innovative prospects of agriculture in Russia. It was about automated systems for collecting data on soil conditions, unmanned aerial vehicles, big data, biological products, environmental certification and the creation of seed funds of agricultural crops.

Another major theme of the conference is “Climate and modern problems of food security.” The speakers uncovered a number of issues related to the impact of climate on food security in Eurasia: the risks and consequences of land degradation, the potential of soils and crops with regard to climate change, priority actions in the field of agriculture and food security in the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Head of the Department of Environmental Economics, Faculty of Economics, Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Economics, Professor, Sergey Nikolayevich Bobylev, in his speech emphasized the importance of implementing the Sustainable Development Agenda for the period up to 2030 in Russia and the features of reflecting food safety issues in its goals and objectives, while proposing their own vision of the upcoming adaptation of UN indicators and the development of a national indicator system for assessing the level of development.

The second day of the conference was devoted to four blocks: sessions with presentations of specific country experiences (Republic of Korea, Russia, Armenia, Central Asian countries), FAO sessions, IFPRI and case studies. FAO experts discussed social protection programs in the areas of nutrition, food safety, migration potential and school meals. Representatives of IFPRI touched on several topics - from the expanding rights of women in households to food policy in the countries of Central Asia.

At the end, the conference participants were offered to visit four thematic excursions: CJSC Lenin State Farm, Food Charity Fund Rus, Russian Parmesan Istrian cheese factory and Danilovsky market.

When visiting a diversified agricultural enterprise where vegetables, fruits and berries are grown, the participants of the conference were given an excursion in the processing shops and were introduced to the process of preparing apple puree.

Next, the guests were introduced to the work of the livestock workshop with a robotic dairy farm for 1,100 animals. The robotic system used on the farm is the “voluntary milking system”. All production processes are automated and occur without personnel participation: from feeding to manure disposal. Lely Astronaut A4 milking robots, feed trimmers and scraper robots are installed and used in workshops. The robotic system carries out tests and keeps a “dossier” for each animal, identifying it by the sensor. Information enters the control program in real time and is accumulated in the database, allowing for further analytical processing. Such systems once again in practice confirm the feasibility of the transition of the agricultural sector to a digital economy.

Participants of the excursion also visited various objects of agritourism created in the farm. Thus, in the “Contact Village” urban children are given an opportunity to get acquainted with the peculiarities of the rural way of life, for which thematic excursions, classes on teaching children how to care for animals and traditional village entertainment are held. 

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