14.03.2021

Technology is not a dogma

The use of sunflower hybrids capable of forming plants, taking into account the limited natural resources, will allow obtaining stable yields

Everything flows, everything changes. And what was perceived as fundamental yesterday may lose meaning and weight today. And already the current laws determine the correct line of behavior and the algorithm of actions. So, more than 26 years ago we created the Tekhnauka company, which was engaged in seed production of varieties and hybrids selected by the Research Institute of Ukraine – primarily sunflower and wheat. Realizing that these varieties and hybrids do not always meet the needs of production with their genetic qualities, we began our own selection. It is known that the main levers of high yields of any agricultural crop that are at the disposal of an agronomist are varieties (hybrid) and technology. Therefore, in 2001, we named the new company LLC “Lugansk Institute of Breeding and Technology” (LIST), where we invited experienced breeders and young promising agronomists.

Tandem for the Steppe

Which crop is the most important – sunflower or wheat? Until recently, there was an indisputable rule: wheat is bread, which is the head of everything. Odes have been sung to this culture for thousands of years. But sunflower is the youngest of the most widespread crops in the world, which is not even 200 years old. But today it is sunflower that is the king of the fields in Ukraine. These two crops have an important place in the crop rotation of the steppe zone of Ukraine, and in some farms only they are grown.

Therefore, we began our breeding with sunflower – in the Steppe of Ukraine at that time it was the most profitable crop. Agronomists, who are now “over 50”, used at least a seven-mile crop rotation, where the sunflower was at the end, and after it, as a rule, there was steam. Sown mainly mid-season varieties, resistant to three races of tops, unstable to downy mildew, rust. Therefore, the return period was 7-10 years. In addition, the varieties were tall and carried a lot of moisture and nutrients from the soil. It never even occurred to anyone to sow wheat after sunflower – this has been unshakable for many years.

Now, when agricultural producers lease land from private owners and there is no such great influence of the state on what to sow and when everyone decides for himself. And in many regions of Ukraine, they sow in two-field crop rotation: wheat – sunflower or sunflower – wheat.

Crop cultivation technologies have changed mainly as they become saturated with new equipment, plant protection products, fertilizers, and the like. Today, when hundreds of new technologies and their interpretations are available to us, the decision to select crops, varieties, hybrids, drugs, fertilizers is taken in accordance with soil, climatic and financial resources, and, most importantly, economic feasibility.

Recognize challenges

The main factor on which the harvest in the Steppe of Ukraine depends is moisture. This past season has convinced even those who vehemently denied climate change to warming.

Sunflower uses moisture from the soil layer 0-200 cm, and sometimes deeper. Therefore, the moisture reserves accumulated during the autumn-winter period are very important. On average, the yield depends 60% on moisture reserves at the time of sowing and 40% on precipitation during the growing season. On lands where less than 500 mm of precipitation falls per year, moisture does not accumulate in the deep layers of the soil in an amount sufficient to obtain a high yield.

Five years ago, driving through the Kharkiv region, one could observe a picture when, after harvesting winter crops, they sowed a sunflower in the hope of getting a second harvest, but in September, in the flowering phase, it dried out due to a lack of moisture in the deep horizons of the soil.

Given the latest trends in climate change, we must be prepared for the new challenges that humankind will soon face. Global warming has already significantly influenced and further affects the weather conditions in various zones of Ukraine, water shortage will become a serious threat to the development of agriculture. Plants change and show symptoms of extreme water shortage at a time when the required moisture level will be absent in the soil of their environment. The area of ​​risky farming is expanding more and more.

The answer of geneticists

One of the ways to act in the face of global warming is to use varieties and hybrids that have been specially bred and adapted for growing conditions in the zone of risky farming. The genetics of such varieties and hybrids allow plants to form above-ground and underground organs, taking into account the limited water and, as a result, to form stable yields even under stressful conditions.

Thanks to new hybrids, as well as climate change, the sunflower is already being sown in the Kyiv and Zhytomyr regions, even in Volyn. In total, the sunflower is sown in Ukraine on an area of ​​5,600,000. Hectares, although 30 years ago it was grown on an area of ​​1,600,000. Hectares and, in particular, in the Kyiv region, this crop was practically not sown. Such an expansion of sown areas and an increase in yield, as well as the gross harvest, was due to the high profitability of this crop, the use of highly productive hybrids with a complex of valuable properties. At one time, 35 years ago in Krasnodar, sitting in his office on the table and smoking a cigarette Belomorkanal, doctor s.-kh. Sciences V. Pustovoit said: “Our friends from Yugoslavia, with the permission of my father, exported all the valuable genetic material abroad” (Academician V. Pustovoit – an outstanding sunflower breeder of the twentieth century, our fellow countryman from the Kharkiv region). After that, thanks to “pocket”, and not only, selection, foreign companies began to actively build up their selection biceps. Today, foreign companies, for example, Pioneer, Syngenta, Limagrain, Euralis, etc. have very strongly captured the sunflower seed market in Ukraine – according to various estimates, from 80 to 90%. At that time, our state scientific institutions – the Institute of Plant Industry (Kharkov), the Breeding and Genetic Institute (Odesa), the Institute of Oilseeds (Zaporozhye) lost their positions, and only thanks to the active development of private Ukrainian companies – VNIS, Gardens Ukraine, Flora, LIST, and others did not fully capture the domestic seed market.

Weed innovation

In addition to the fact that new breeding developments have made it possible to increase the production of sunflower, technology also made a significant contribution to a significant extent. For example, weeds caused great damage to the crop. Back in the 19th century. century P. A. Kostychev noted: “… from weeds our harvest is reduced by half, and by no less than 30 percent.” For the formation of 1 kg of dry weeds, 300-400 liters of water are spent.

Mechanical methods have long been the only method for dealing with weeds. In the 1960s-1980s, all farms had the practice of weeding sunflowers by hand. Then, traditional soil herbicides were added to the mechanical measures. Today, those who are forced to disrupt crop rotation or want to minimize tillage have the opportunity to use modern technologies SUMO, IMI, applying herbicides on the appropriate hybrids.

In the arsenal of breeders, there are already hybrids with simultaneous resistance to both tribenuron-methyl and imidazolinones. However, another danger lurks hereafter the sunflower, on which the eurolightning herbicide was used, it is impossible to sow winter wheat because there is a strong inhibitory effect of the herbicide. Again the dilemma – which crop to add in this case to your crop rotation? Wheat breeders have not slowed down here and are already creating varieties resistant to eurolightning.

Resist the broomrape

Another important factor in sunflower yield, which is constantly being improved, is broomrape. This parasite spreads along with the crop and invades ever larger areas. Broomrape seeds germinate at root secretions of sunflower, especially severe damage that occurs in dry years, when the concentration of this substrate is significant. Where it never existed (no sunflower was sown), the fourth and even the fifth races appeared. Some time will pass, and already in the Cherkassk, Kyiv, and other forest-steppe regions there will be both the sixth and seventh races.

Accordingly, the hybrid composition will change towards the most resistant to the top. Such hybrids of domestic breeding as Commander 777, Liman, and Carbon today may well cope with this parasite in any region of Ukraine.

Just count

Another important aspect discussed in assessing the feasibility of growing sunflower is the removal of nutrients from the soil with its harvest. Indeed, he takes a lot, but if we consider how much we take from the field of the main component of the crop – seeds, then the picture is not as sad as some administrative workers painted it in their time.

I will give some figures: on average, about 10 tons of yield of absolutely dry matter of sunflower is formed per 1 hectare, in particular of seeds – only 2-2.5 tons, that is, 7.5-8 tons of dry matter of sunflower remains on the field and is included in the process metabolism.

But on the field where wheat was grown, the removal of absolutely dry matter can be the same 10 tons, or even 20 tons, which, together with grain and straw, are very often completely removed.

Marketing to help us

The innovations of recent years have contributed to the introduction of new technology, navigation, new forms of active substances, etc. into production, which has made it possible to significantly increase the yield of crops and the quality of the crop. Now the development of artificial intelligence is underway for its further integration into the production processes of the agro-industrial complex.

Now every agronomist has access to information, there are thousands of options for products for production, you can “drown” in this information, so the importance of marketing is reaching a new level. By the way, it is often he who is decisive for many agricultural producers in making decisions. Therefore, at our enterprise – LLC “Company LIST”, we are introducing new approaches to the relationship selection-seed-growing-technology-production-marketing.

Everything is changing, and in the process of improvement, the main thing is not to stop but to develop together with science and best-advanced practice, to find optimal solutions for yourself.