Transition to No-Till is inevitable

Agro-Soyuz hosted the international conference “No-Till Laboratory: field practice” on its farm in Mayskoye village on May 30-31, 2019. This was the largest event of this kind both in Ukraine and in former Soviet countries in terms of geography and number of participants. About 300 farmers from 6 countries (Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Moldova, Bulgaria and Russia) took part in NTLab-2019.

During a two-day conference the guests attended 8 experimental plots at Agro-Soyuz, visited fields of Andrey Usov (“Anastasia” farm) who has been farming without any fungicides and pesticides for 15 years, watched operation of various seeding systems and openers, participated in discussions, asked a lot of questions to speakers and saw efficient no-till seeding machinery. Hearty talks and real friendship, firm handshake, exchange of contact information and even farewell tears – NTLab left nobody indifferent.

The speakers and participants of the conference emphasized that even though no-till is not a cure-all approach and it doesn’t provide recipes, transition to sustainable technologies is inevitable. This is a requirement set by economics, environment and common sense.

Vadim Drobitko, speaker, no-till farmer from Nikolayev region: “No-till is the only way to develop in our circumstances. The last who understand it will go bankrupt.”

Eduard Romankov, speaker, Director of Soyuz-SpecTechnics: “No-till technology has got no nationality. Everybody here invests something personal into it. This is a creative process. Experimental plots that we’ve established for this conference is an attempt to answer some of thousand questions regarding this technology. Indeed, much has to be discovered yet and that’s why it is so interesting. No-till makes us think and accommodate to conditions dictated by the market and environment, whereas thinking is a key to successful business development.”

Nikolay Kosolap, speaker, scientist: “Learning no-till is like learning how to write... Initially you fail, then you do it awkwardly, but gradually you suceed more and more. Some of our colleagues “write” so professionally that we visit their fields to learn.”

Sergey Suroviy, participant, no-till farmer from Dnipropetrovsk region: A strong person is not the one who doesn’t fall. A strong person is the one who falls, gets up on his feet and continuous walking. I’ve made lots of mistakes this season and I am sure I will continue making them, but the man who never made a mistake, never made anything. Don’t be afraid to try!”

We appreciate everyone’s participation: from Bulgaria to Ural Mountains! Great that you made it to our place! Thank you for your warm words and appreciation of our preparation efforts! Everything will be No-Till!