L.A. Zhdanov Don experimental station

About branch

Director Oleg Fyodorovich Gorbachenko Doctor of agriculture

The station was established in 1924 on the basis of the Rostov-Nakhichevan Experimental Station, whose history began in the first decade of the twentieth century. The new station inherited a lot of problems, the most acute of which was the seed problem.

At that time the task before the Don experimental station, as well as before other institutions of that kind, established in the young Republic of Soviets on the initiative of a prominent scientist and researcher Vavilov N. I., was to breed and provide the agricultural farms with high-yielding varieties of grain, industrial, vegetable, fruit, and other crops adapted to local natural conditions. The first oil crop varieties obtained at the Don station by selection method had improved economically important traits but did not yet meet the requirements of farmers.

The change in research work took place in the early 1930s with the emergence of young, talented specialists. Leonid Afanasievich Zhdanov (30.04.1890-27.12.1974), a novice agricultural scientist, who worked as a researcher at the Don experimental station, carried out in-depth experiments with sunflower. He clearly understood that, first of all, farmers needed a variety that was resistant to broomrape. The first such varieties were Zhdanovsky 6432, Zhdanovsky 8281, and Stepnyak, which were resistant to the B race of broomrape.

Leonid Afanasievich Zhdanov was inspired by experiments of Vasily Stepanovich Pustovoit (14.01.1886-11.10.1972), a well-known plant breeder of the country, a scientist of the All-Union Research Institute of Oil Crops (VNIIMK). While working on the breeding of disease-resistant sunflower, the Kuban scientist also bred high oil content in the plant, which is the main advantage of the oil crop. The Don researcher was also involved in the same problem at his experimental station.

As a result of his meticulous work, the agronomist succeeded in developing sunflower varieties that were resistant to broomrape. This was an outstanding achievement of the scientist. The oil content of these varieties was increased almost twice while they remained high-yielding. The sowings of these varieties covered an area of 2-2.5 million hectares in pre-war times. Zhdanov was awarded the State Prize of the II degree for the development of high-yielding varieties resistant to broomrape.

L. A. Zhdanov worked at the Don station for more than half a century. He was the first and irreplaceable head of the breeding department. He is rightfully considered the founder of the station, and the head of breeding programs on sunflower, castor, mustard, sesame, oil flax, lallemantia, and safflower. To commemorate the outstanding achievements of the breeder, his name was memorialized and given to the Don experimental station for oil crops.

From 1963 to 1983, the department of breeding was headed by Kartamyshev V. G., Doctor of agriculture, and Fyodor Ivanovich Gorbachenko (12.06.1940-14.06.2020), Doctor of agriculture, Professor, was the head and lead worker of breeding programs for oil crops from 1983 to 2020.

The research, development, and production team of the station continues the remarkable traditions of the older generation in science, applies the achievements of breeding and seed production in the fields, and uses progressive methods of agricultural practices.

As part of international cooperation, the station maintains partnership relations with foreign companies, and breeders of Ukraine, Belarus, Serbia, and Romania. Breeding material is exchanged with V. S. Pustovoit All-Russian Research Institute of Oil Crops and its experimental stations, with the Federal Agrarian Scientific Centre of the South-East. Joint breeding work is carried out to develop new hybrid combinations of sunflower and other oil crop varieties adapted to cultivation in a wide range of climatic regions of Russia and the CIS.

Breeders of the station over the years of its work have developed and introduced into production more than 100 varieties, hybrids, and lines of oil crops. 75 varieties were developed over the past 20 years, including 5 varieties, 20 hybrids, and 36 lines of sunflower, 4 varieties of brown mustard, white mustard, 4 varieties of castor, 3 varieties of oil flax, winter rapeseed varieties, and safflower varieties. All of them are patented and included in the State Register of Breeding Achievements admitted for cultivation in various regions of the Russian Federation, in the CIS countries (Ukraine, Belarus, etc.), as well as in Moldova, Romania, and Bulgaria. Varieties and hybrids of the station’s breeding are sown annually in the Russian Federation and CIS countries on an area of about 1 million hectares.