Benko Nikolai Ivanovich Biography

Agroplasm partners: the fifth aggregate state with Nikolai Ivanovich Benko, the head of the Russian breeding and seed company Agropoplasm, I met a few years ago thanks to the director of the Agro-Gibrid Volga LLC Dmitry Ivanov, the official distributor in the Saratov region. Benko came to participate in our bottom of the field. Even then, at the height of fashion for everything imported, she asked: is there any sense in the "Battle of Titans".

It seemed to many that domestic scientists were lagging behind the Western life and is unlikely to create serious competition for them in the foreseeable future. Then there was a meeting in Krasnodar, at the Yugagro exhibition, and again, looking at the colorful expositions of the leading suppliers of imported seeds, there was a feeling that the Russians had negligible prospects.

Benko just returned from Turkey, where he participated in the work of the World Congress of breeders of various field crops, and assured me that the situation looked a little different than the inhabitants say about it. There are no fantastic robots that cross something there at the genetic and molecular level, abroad. There are pretty well equipped laboratories that can conduct biochemical analysis, evaluate genetic affiliation and so on, which significantly helps the work of the breeder.

But to replace a person with a machine, in principle, is impossible. However, even without a computer, a modern scientist cannot work now, they are in “agroplasma”. And there are established ties with the leading laboratories of Russia and Europe, where breeding material is investigated. The main indicator is the competitiveness of hybrids in those demonstration crops that organize all foreign and domestic seed manufacturers, including us.

We annually analyze the level of productivity of our hybrids and leading foreign companies. As for the sunflower, we are in the middle of the list. Part of imported hybrids surpass us, some are superior. This is evident on the basis of objective data collected by independent experts. If the life and well -being of the breeders themselves directly depend on the results of labor, you can quite successfully compete with the West.

Many, wanting to prick us, compare hybrids as cars. They ask why we trade in the “Lada”, when everyone around the “Mercedes” drives around. I categorically disagree with this comparison, because we create the same high -quality product. And then, I want to remind these gentlemen that the cultural sunflower left Russia. In the sixties, the largest breakthrough was in Russian selection, and this was sown by our varieties of half of Europe.

Only the incorrect strategy of VNIIMK, which did not follow the path of development of hybrids, focusing on varieties, failed us. Every year, our company increases sales by an average of 25 percent, or even a third. And if this does not happen, I think that I have a crisis in the company. Speaking about the crisis in his own “office”, Nikolai Ivanovich, of course, exaggerates.

Fourteen years, despite the complete lack of state support, the company has been purposefully and dynamically developing, increasing the production and sale of seeds of two crops: sunflower and sorghum. I would like to add the word "so far", because the topic of corn is no less relevant. Lukyanenko as a breeder in corn, together with academician Mikhail Ivanovich Khadzhinov.

Then there was cooperation with foreign companies Monsanto and Cargill. In the "agroplasm", when the breeding and semen-building company had to be done from scratch, Benko and his like-minded people began with the selection of sunflower hybrids solely due to its demand, then the time of the sorghum came. The choice of these crops is also explained by their rare drought tolerance and multi -purpose use.

Starting from the year, 27 hybrids of sunflower and 10 hybrids and sorghum varieties were created. The introduction of sanctions and the subsequent fall of the ruble course opened the green light to the Russian breeders. Only one to a change in the market situation turned out to be completely inappropriate. Others ... the leadership of the "agroplasmas", which always believed in its star, long before today's events, chose two strategic directions in selection.

Benko’s infection never scared. Just think, over a hundred years of industrial cultivation of sunflower, only the seventh race in Russia! He even likes the competition, who will overtake anyone - scientists or parasite. The main thing is to think non -standard, and not hide your head in the sand, as VNIIMK did at one time, not noticing the appearance of the fifth race in Russia.

Benko almost the first to score an alarm about this. I went out with a new program to create hybrids that are resistant to the new race. He began to study stability sources from Spain and Romania. Toislessly, they did not fit us! And only when the turn reached Turkey, the breeder was lucky to find a “related” race. Someone can write off this phenomenon on a similar evolutionary process, in the "agroplasm" they found a more prosaic explanation.Hundreds of combines from Turkey annually participate in harvesting in the south of Russia, moving along the M-4 highway, here you have a new race of infection.

Add here the highest quality of seeds that meets international standards, acceptable prices, responsible distributors like the Saratov Ivanovs - Anatoly Nikolaevich and Dmitry Anatolyevich - with detailed consultations and professional support. That's where the slogan came from: "Not a drop of doubt that you are making the right choice." At the distribution meeting, which took place in Dagomis in December, scientists tried to disclose what the secret of their success lies.

The lesson is quite complicated, especially if you exclude the word “talent” from vocabulary. By operating with the concepts of pragmatists, the following can be said briefly. The entire breeding process is carried out in Russia, so the “agroplasma” creates a hybrid more adapted to our agroclimatic conditions. At the same time, international cooperation with countries such as Ukraine, Belarusia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Turkey allows you to use winter nurseries to accelerate the breeding process and propagate parental forms, which increases competitiveness in the domestic market.

Basically, it is an exchange of seed material for field tests. And of course, a huge breakthrough was made in cooperation with the BASF company to create hybrids resistant to the Eurobicide Euro-Littleing of the Clearfield production system. You can’t call them old in any way, because their breeders “turned over” them like a dilapidated coat. They have become more aligned, more stable, more resilient to stress conditions and more productive.

The most prospecting direction of selection is high -oleine sunflower. What are you obsessed with?

And most breeders are ordinary people who love their business very much, it contains the meaning of their life. No wonder most of the good breeders do not leave their feet from the field. For a breeder, his varieties are like children, but even a good breeder may not recognize his hybrid in the field, the growing conditions are so different. She has a rather strong basket, someone does not like it, but in thehydrous, arid steppes she helps out the farmers great.

Now a lot of people find the product they need via the Internet, and then make a decision based on data. What do you convey to your business partners? We believe that we are doing a wonderful job, creating hardy and highly productive hybrids. Russia should have its own serious breeding school, otherwise we will become dependent on foreign powers. And this should not be.

The second thing we inspire everyone we are faced with in our work is the desire not to calm down on what has been achieved. Otherwise, stagnation will come. The competition that now exists in the seeds of the sunflower and other crops, we only stimulate us more and better work. Svetlana Luke.