EkoNiva has run its annual crop production workshop in the Volga region. It was the biggest local event in terms of both the number of attendees and variety of services involved in crop farming.

About 100 specialists from all EkoNiva’s geographies took part in the meeting – directors of enterprises, agronomists, engineers, economists, IT specialists, commercial departments, HR employees and research officers.

Over the course of three days, the workshop participants toured Severnaya Niva's fields in Orenburg and Samara oblasts, Bashkiria and Tatarstan. They focused their attention on the specific features of crop cultivation in these regions and technologies used.

‘We discussed the most topical issues – how to grow fodder crops in this challenging environment, prevent soil degradation, employ different plant protection and tillage systems for weed control and manage staff shortage. The exchange of experience with specialists from various services related to crop farming helps to develop the right strategy and put up a good show’, says Aleksandr Anpilov, Director for Crop Production at EkoNiva.

According to Stefan Dürr, President of EkoNiva Group, such interaction acts as an excellent catalyst for professional growth:

‘We are a large company, and we have many great specialists in different regions, each farm boasts its own achievements and interesting know-how. Our enterprises should make a better use of this, visiting each other more often and sharing advanced practices.’

Stefan Dürr also noted that there are many successful companies in Russia that have a lot to learn from and are willing to exchange their knowledge, so cooperation with them could become an effective tool for development.

Representatives of EkoNiva's plant breeding and seed growing subdivision find the Volga region a promising platform for ecological and geographical testing of the company's in-house varieties. For example, the new winter wheat EN Albireo has yielded well in production.

‘The fields of Severnaya Niva in Samara and Tatarstan will become a good site where we can assess the performance of our ultra-early soya bean varieties in this region’, says Yevgeniy Kucheryavenko, Director of EkoNiva-Semena.

Such experiments to identify the best varieties and develop effective technologies for their cultivation have become an integral part of EkoNiva's research and production activities. Now, over 80 trials are being carried out on an area of 6,600 hectares, 10 of which are in Severnaya Niva. The participants of the workshop got to see some of them and concluded that experimental sowing of various crops should be applied to all farms of the company.

Following the event, a decision was made to create an expert panel on crop production which would include all related services. Thus, the performance of this area of the holding’s activity can be improved, which will further boost its economy.