'While Lukashenka Rushes With Corn And Cows…'
23- 17.10.2024, 12:45
- 17,686
The dictator's "brainchild" degraded to the level of slash-and-burn farming.
Not so long ago, Lukashenka in his small homeland got acquainted with the results of an experiment on the cultivation of corn of different varieties.
"We have good corn, what else can I say. But we are lagging behind the West," the ruler stated.
Why does it happen? The Charter97.org website spoke on condition of anonymity with a professor of the Belarusian State Agricultural Academy — Lukashenka graduated this university:
— Selection in Belarus today is at the lowest level in its history. First of all, it's about personnel. Look at the passing scores for the Faculty of Breeding and Genetics. Already with a good dozen years we have shortages with this specialty. Young people are not interested in this. You can talk a lot about why this happened.
In Western countries, scientists who produce truly new varieties, which are then adopted by farmers, earn good money. I emphasize that we are talking about a product that is then actively used. Not just a ticked variety, which is slightly different from the previous ones. We actively practice this when a variety is bred for the sake of the variety. It is a relic of the Soviet system.
Another problem is how a variety from scientific laboratories and experimental fields comes to farms. Yes, we have exhibitions, but they are visited only by the leaders of some large and successful collective farms. The average chairman is not interested that some new variety has appeared, which compares favorably with its predecessors. The are just working the old way. Such leaders just needs to keep their middle level.
Here we come to the system of collective farms. A farmer can sometimes risk acquiring a new variety to try out. The private trader follows the novelties and interested in using the latest developments of the breeding market. This is how it works in the West. It is no wonder that even Lukashenka admits that European varieties are better.
To sum up, this sphere should be given into the hands of the market. There are people interested in the latest developments of geneticists for farms, there is a demand and a market, scientists have money, they do their job better. It's a simple scheme.
After all, you can not engage in this "breedmania", just buy high-quality seeds in the West, adapt them somewhere to our conditions — and that's all. But there is also a Soviet moment here. "Let's catch up and overtake America." Such a corn race.
— Do you need a lot of forces and means to restart Belarusian agriculture?
— The most expensive resource is time. First, we need a preliminary assessment. To reject these Soviet practices of "battles for the harvest", competitions between regions. We have Vitebsk and Mahiliou regions, where the climate and soils are not the best. Why do we constantly "pull up" these regions, throw huge resources into them? It is necessary to assess whether it is advisable to bet on these areas. Do we need so many, relatively speaking, grain crops in these regions? After all, if you discard the "battle for the harvest", you can reorient them to other crops. There is no need to engage in "fetishism".
The second is private agriculture. Then there will be varieties that are better than the Western ones. Then the cows will not drown in the dung. These are basic things.
Again, you don't have to go far. There is the experience of neighboring countries — Poland and Germany. While Lukashenka rushes with corn and cows, robots are already doing half the work on large Western farms. And we have a digging stick and slash-and-burn farming. Agriculture was brought to its knees by the authorities.
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