Adilkhan Maui, professor at the Kazakh National Women's Teacher Training University and doctor of biological sciences, suggested new ways to increase sugar beet yields in the country, reports Delovoy Kazakhstan.
According to the scientist, today 95% of beet crops in Kazakhstan are imported from Germany, France and the Netherlands. These varieties are resistant to diseases have high yields and high germination rates.
– Frankly, the country does not have quality seeds resistant to rot, high yields, treated against pathogens and pests, and they are not grown. For example, in Aksu and Sarkan districts of Almaty region there are several thousand hectares of land suitable for beet cultivation. In these areas, beet fields have little spores of rot and low incidence of sugar beet rot, the prevalence of the disease does not exceed 5-7%, there are 30-40 thousand hectares of land on which you can produce at least 500 quintals or more. In Zhambyl region, there are 35-45 thousand hectares of fields with very low levels of root rot pathogens. If we increase the sown areas of sweet root crops to 100 thousand, and the yield to 500 quintals per hectare, we can produce 500 thousand tons of sugar. This means that we can not only provide ourselves with sugar, but also export it, – said Adilkhan Maui.
According to the expert, it is necessary to restore the fertility of old beet fields in order to obtain a good harvest. It is also important to make efficient use of irrigated land and maintaining crop rotation a priority. To utilize degraded land, it is necessary to maintain full agronomic practices on beet crops heavily infested with rot, and to apply 40-60 tons of manure per hectare before plowing on degraded fields in autumn. . These measures should be carried out annually. Then it is recommended to plow the soil to a depth of 25-30 cm to increase soil fertility.
– Beet varieties and hybrids grown in Kazakhstan in the last half century have very low resistance to rot and are damaged by 90-100%. Our scientists are not engaged in growing disease-resistant varieties and hybrids of sugar beet in the country. If we want to increase the cultivation of sugar beet, increase the yield and provide the country with sugar, we need to solve this problem, – the scientist said.
Dozens of beet varieties are produced each year in Germany. The varieties produced are subjected to crop rotation so that they do not become infected with rot within 4-5 years. The infected variety is replaced with another, disease-resistant variety. In countries such as Europe, the USA and Canada, great attention is paid to the first disease-resistant varieties.
It should be noted that Kazakhstan is one of the country’s growing sugar beets. However, we provide only 5% of sugar. The rest is imported from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Today the area sown with this crop does not exceed 10 thousand hectares, and the yield has decreased 4-6 times.
– Previously, the country had 8 sugar beet processing plants, but today only Zhambyl, Koksu and Aksu produce sugar. These plants only have to work for a month or two because of a shortage of raw materials. Therefore, in order to activate work in this area, it is necessary, first of all, to conduct systematic scientific work, – says the scientist.
