Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences

On March 2, at the next meeting of the Presidium of ANAS, the problem of food security in new economic environment has been discussed. For active participation  of scientists and experts who live in the regions, and bringing them to the discussion of challenges in strengthening scientific support for the agrarian sector, voiced by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev at the General Meeting, dedicated to the 70th anniversary of ANAS, teleconference was organized with the regional departments of ANAS, private universities and institutes.

Delivering lecture on "The problem of food security in new economic environment and the role of science in its solution", the director of the Institute of Genetic Resources, corresponding member of ANAS Zeynal Akbarov pointed out the current state of agriculture in the country, the problems and their solutions.

Notifying the vital role of science-based soil reforms by national leader Heydar Aliyev in development of the agricultural sector in the country, Zeynal Akbarov noted that this policy is being successfully continued by President Ilham Aliyev, and he identified the complete achieve of food safety in the country as one of the main purposes. Corresponding member of ANAS added that agricultural production in the last year increased by 48.8 percent compared to 2004, which is considered a major contribution to the development of non-oil sector.

Director of the Institute said that the share of agricultural sector in non-oil sector of Azerbaijan is high: "The current state of the import and export of non-oil sector shows that there are ample opportunities for the development of the agricultural sector. The dynamics of growth of agricultural production depends mainly on bringing scientific maintenance of agrarian sector to international standards, to attract investment, the use of modern technologies”.

Having said that Azerbaijan is a land-poor country, the scientist said that with the commissioning Takhtakorpu, Shamkirchay and Tovuzchay reservoirs, new lands were included in the circulation, which are important for the country. He emphasized the need for multifaceted evaluation of land resources of the republic, including land affected by erosion and salinity, as well as land, only included in the crop turnover, potentially suitable for the planting by application of modern technologies and the development of their exact maps.

The speaker noted that there are millions of tons of organic residues and waste, and added that produced complex organic and mineral fertilizers in the Institute of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry of ANAS through the advanced technology of the waste in the country. Research in this area continues. He proposed to solicit for appropriate authorities on the issue of strengthening the activities of the organization for a wide industrial production of newly created fertilizers.

Noting that during the breeding work, completely studied the materials of the national gene pool of the country have been used, the speaker added that was organized reliable protection of the genetic fund, collected by the National Genebank, samples are studied through latest methods. The scientist stressed that the need of the hour is the use of genetic engineering research, ICT, Cybernetics, application of agro biological methods. Certain works based on international experience were executed, created the first laboratory "Genomics" in the region and enhanced staff training. The scientist said that through the use of new-generation sequencers started reading the genome and finding genes that are resistant to various environmental and stress factors.

Referring to existed problems in the field of selection and seed-growing Zeynal Akbarov announced proposals to address them: "There should be developed and implemented targeted state programs on modern strategy of selection and selection of priority crops in accordance with the interests of the state and needs of the market. In order to create sustainable, competitive varieties, forms and hybrids of food crops on the basis of these policies and programs, the usage of biotechnological techniques, selection methods at the level of molecular, marker-based and genome. Due to selection of high-yielding varieties, should be improved state testing of varieties, covering all land and climatic conditions. One of the main conditions for obtaining high-quality products is the proper organization of seed production on a scientific basis."

Zeynal Alakbarov emphasized that, for serious positive results in the field of agricultural sciences are needed reconstruction and modernization of systematic research institutions, building capacity for molecular genetics investigations.

He noted that, the considerable part of funds, which are spent directly for production, has to be directed to development of technologies and training of staff. It is necessary to pay attention to studying of biotechnologies, food engineering and ICT which have brought a powerful contribution in preservation of food security in the world.

The scientist added that one of the main goals should be to create a system of science- training- practice, which is the most important factor for improving the competitiveness of agriculture.

After discussions were responded questions; the report was approved by the Decree of the Presidium. Due to the transition to new flexible economic model it has been decided to bring up before appropriate authorities a question of creation Scientific and consulting council and modern Agropark, covering all spheres of sector of agro-business, under President with participation of the famous scientists.

Also were recognized the appropriate organization of wide industrial production of organic and mineral fertilizers created by ANAS Institute, study of international experience in order to strengthen human resource capacity in the agricultural sector and its application in the preparation of ANAS master and doctorate, promote cooperation with the relevant departments of the country's higher educational institutions.

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