TOMSK, Sep 16 – RIA Tomsk. Sibagro in 2020 increased the area of sown fields by more than two times compared to 2019 - up to 537 hectares; the company purchased special equipment - a mulcher, allowing to put into circulation fallow lands; by 2022, it is planned to put into circulation 1000 hectares, director of the company's crop production department Sergey Mamonov told.
Earlier it was reported that in 2019 Tomsk agricultural holding Sibagro (formerly the Siberian Agrarian Group) in 2019 restored 800 hectares of fallow lands that had not been used for more than 10-15 years in the Malinovsky and Kopylovsky rural settlements of the Tomsk region. In 2020, it was planned to plant these fields with wheat and barley, which will be used for feed at the poultry farm and pig complex.
New assistant
According to Mamonov, the company's specialists have been putting into circulation fallow lands for about two years.
“We need fields located close to our factories so that we do not send equipment over long distances during the growing season and thus reduce transport costs. Previously, we introduced suitable fallow land using a disc harrow, but this year we acquired a specialized and a more efficient technique - it is a mulcher", - Mamonov said.
© РИА Томск. Таисия Воронцова
Sergey Mamonov
This machine fells down young trees, crushes them and distributes them over the surface of the field. The disc harrow then plows the ground and levels the field, which is then sown with grain crops. In 2020, with the help of a mulcher, 500 hectares of fallow lands were put into circulation in the Malinovsky rural settlement.
However, land that has not been used for more than 10 years is not enough just to plow, it is necessary to revive their fertility. For this purpose, Sibagro uses organic fertilizers obtained from recycled waste from a poultry farm and a pig complex. They are saturated with nitrogen and other nutrients that improve soil composition.
© РИА Томск. Таисия Воронцова
Mulcher
Harvest
"In 2020, we increased the area of sown fields 2.5 times compared to last year and sowed 537 hectares on new land. In some areas, we received yields of up to 49 centners. These are high indicators for Siberia, practically at the level of Krasnodar. In 2021, it is planned to put into circulation another 500 hectares of fallow lands and sow barley and wheat on 1200 hectares", - Mamonov noted.
He specified that the grown grain crops are added to the compound feed for birds and pigs. If in the future the yield does not decrease, the company plans to grow legumes as well.
© РИА Томск. Таисия Воронцова
Field after mulcher processing
Investments in production
In 2020, the total amount of Sibagro's investments in the development of crop production amounted to about 65 million rubles. These funds were used to purchase a tractor, a disc harrow, a combine harvester, two KamAZ trucks with trailers for transporting fertilizers. In 2021, it is also planned to purchase a seeding complex for 7-8 million rubles, which will perform sowing, packing and cultivation of the soil.
As Alexander Savenko, deputy head of the regional department for social and economic development of the village, explained, fallow lands: “This is the problem of the entire Russian agriculture. In the 90s, when enterprises were becoming bankrupt on a massive scale, the land that was once reclaimed from the forest stopped being cultivated. Today there are 646 thousand hectares of arable land in the region and about 400 thousand hectares in circulation".
According to him, the head of the region Sergey Zhvachkin has set a task to put about 100 thousand hectares into circulation. Since 2015, the region has already put into circulation 25 thousand hectares of fallow lands.