The initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture to quote the import of agricultural crops seeds has a serious chance of being implemented, and starting from 2024 the import of potato, wheat, rye, barley, corn, soybeans, rapeseed, sunflower and sugar beet seeds from unfriendly countries will be limited. The Ministry believes that this will boost the development of domestic selection and seed production.
Reproducing sugar beet hybrids is a complicated process. This is done by special farms with very expensive equipment and strictly debugged system. According to Evgeny Ivanov from IKAR, “Sugar beet seeds can only be obtained in a year: at the end of the first season only small root crops are harvested and then stored until spring, afterwards they are planted again so that they produce seeds,”. Although experiments on growing hybrids were carried in different climates, beet seed production (more than 90%) is concentrated in the south of France and in Northern Italy where the climate is ideal for a two-year growing cycle.
“To ensure the food security of the country, the need for domestically produced seeds is increasing significantly,” comments Victor Aleksakhin, General Director of Prodimex Group. The group’s farms use seeds of both imported and domestic selection. Winter wheat is exclusively of domestic selection, as well as some other grain crops. But sunflower and sugar beet seeds are mostly imported. Local crop hybrids are also being tested annually, but so far for sugar beet there is a certain backlog of domestic hybrids in terms of yield and sugar production per hectare.
Reproducing sugar beet hybrids is a complicated process. This is done by special farms with very expensive equipment and strictly debugged system. According to Evgeny Ivanov from IKAR, “Sugar beet seeds can only be obtained in a year: at the end of the first season only small root crops are harvested and then stored until spring, afterwards they are planted again so that they produce seeds,”. Although experiments on growing hybrids were carried in different climates, beet seed production (more than 90%) is concentrated in the south of France and in Northern Italy where the climate is ideal for a two-year growing cycle.
“To ensure the food security of the country, the need for domestically produced seeds is increasing significantly,” comments Victor Aleksakhin, General Director of Prodimex Group. The group’s farms use seeds of both imported and domestic selection. Winter wheat is exclusively of domestic selection, as well as some other grain crops. But sunflower and sugar beet seeds are mostly imported. Local crop hybrids are also being tested annually, but so far for sugar beet there is a certain backlog of domestic hybrids in terms of yield and sugar production per hectare.