On 18thDecember, 2013 the Chairman of the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada ofUkraine on Agrarian Policy and Land Relations Grygorii Kaletnik took part in the session of the General Assembly of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences ofUkraine, which was held at the Institute of bioenergy crops and sugar beets.During session there were discussed and made decisions on the conceptual foundations of the Program of scientific-organizational and investment-innovative development of the Academy, amendments to its founding documents and the problems and prospects of development of veterinary science in Ukraine.
In his speech at the meeting, Grygorii Kaletnik informed about some of the issues of work of the Committee on Agrarian Policy and Land Relations, in particular in the state budget for 2014, based on signed agreements betweenUkraineandRussia. He told about initiatives of the Committee concerning the reducing of export of national agricultural row materials and the need for further development of the processing industry inUkraine. He gave the example of development of oil and fat industry, which became possible due the establishment of export duty on sunflower seeds. Although the increasing of export potential ofUkrainein general is positive, but the development of the processing industry will enable the providing of the population with products of own production, increase employment and contributions to the budgets of all levels and develop the social sector. At present we see a steady trend of increasing in export of national goods and services with low added value, which may negatively affect the economic performance within the state.
Referring to aspects of activity of National Academy of Agrarian Sciences, Grygorii Mykolayovych stressed the necessity to earn money through sales, especially of their own researches, their implementation in specific projects, related to the production and processing of agricultural products. In addition, he offered to focus on creating of centers "of complete cycle», where will be combined the process of training of the staff for agriculture, scientific researches, their application in practice, till the realization of finished products.
Also, Grygorii Kaletnik emphasized the necessity to improve the work of the NAAS in the selection direction, because investigations that the Academy has in this sphere are quite significant, but use in agricultural sector of the country is not high. Foreign companies earn money on national agricultural producers, but their breeding material is much more expensive than Ukrainian. For example: we have a high-yield varieties of winter wheat, breaded in Odessa breeding-genetic institute, Institute of Plant Physiology and other institutions of the Academy but buy varieties Torild and Zaten-Tsyuht, which are also a high-yield, but quite unstable in our climatic conditions and are at times more expensive. Also we buy expensive hybrid seeds of corn, sunflower, rapeseed of known foreign companies: Pioneer, Ranet, Monsanto, which competitors can become hybrids, breaded in Dnepropetrovsk Institute of Wheat, Ivano-Frankivsk Institute of cruciferous, Institute of oil crops and others. In this context, it is necessary to make "stocktaking" of researches within Academy for it’s promotion to the national agricultural market.
At the end of his speech, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine jokingly wished Academy employees to receive state funding for the next 2014 in the required amount as a gift from St. Nicholas, because the session of the General Assembly was held on the eve of this fest.