A QUESTION OF SURVIVAL

Good Business in Neglect

Lyudmila Archakova,
Director of the Polar Experimental Station of
The All-Union Scientific Plant Growing Research Institute

        In 1923 near Murmansk, the Polar Experimental Station of the All-Union Scientific Plant Growing Research Institute was founded by N.I. Vavilov. Its need came about as a result of the discovery on the Kola Peninsula of great deposits of apatites, non-ferrous metals and iron ores, as well as the desire to develop their industrial application.
        The area's industrialization led to rapid population growth, which eventually exceeded one million people. As a result, they required continuous supplies of agricultural products, a demand not easily met. Apart from small numbers of private vegetable farmers, there was practically no local agriculture under the harsh Arctic conditions. The most acute difficulties were encountered in the delivery of dairy products, potatoes, fresh vegetables and herbs over long distances without the use of refrigerated containers. It was this problem the station was created to solve.
        Initially, experiments determined that even under the conditions of the Far North, it was possible, but only by proper amelioration of the poor local soil with organic and mineral fertilizers, by developing technologies specific to Arctic methods of agriculture and, chiefly, by the introduction of new frost-resistant kinds of plants. The unique collection of the St Petersburg (then Leningrad) Institute of Plant Growing donated to our station samples of the rarest and most promising crop specimens from all over the world. As early as the 1930's, this research made possible in Murmansk a whole network of dairy and vegetable farms as well as auxiliary farms for industrial enterprises. Arctic agriculture concentrated on three major areas: vegetable and herb production in and out of greenhouses, raising potatoes and production of fodder for dairy cattle. Up until the 1990's, the station achieved satisfactory results in research of amelioration of northern soils (from mineral to marshy ones), biochemistry and agricultural technologies. These techniques were successfully applied to local resources.
        Unfortunately, in the last 8 years agricultural production in the Murmansk region has dramatically dropped. The general declining economic situation in our country has led to the disintegration of the majority of formerly run farms. Much food is now imported from abroad, even though the potatoes, for example, that used to be grown here were no worse the ones brought from Poland, not to mention cheaper. The revival of northern agriculture under the present circumstances is becoming a major stumbling block in the economic independence of the Russian Federation.
        Yet still, the scientific fundamentals of Arctic agriculture developed by our experimental station are not valued. The station itself is going through a crisis. Today the research staff consists of six research workers and eleven lab assistants. All of them are of respectable age, as young people are not attracted by such miserably paid jobs. At the same time, the money allocated by the state budget is hardly enough for the very modest salaries of our employees. Besides the research staff, the station should have an experimental farm staffed by 28 workers. It was assumed that the farm would not only be self-sufficient, but would pay for the financing of scientific and research work, its material and technical base and operating expenses. In reality, the farm cannot manage that. What with continuously rising prices for energy, materials and equipment, the greenhouses have had to be disassembled.
        Urgent help is needed, not only on the local but also on the federal level. Otherwise, arctic agriculture, a very important state business, will be doomed.