Academic literature on the topic 'Agriculture – Belarus – 1990-'

Land use and cover changes (LUCC) have a fundamental impact on the terrestrial carbon cycle. The abandonment of cropland as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union offers a typical case of the conversion from cropland to natural vegetation, which could have a significant effect on the terrestrial carbon cycle. Due to the inaccuracy of LUCC records, the corresponding impact on the terrestrial carbon cycle has not been well quantified. In this study, we estimated the carbon flux using the Vegetation-Global-Atmosphere-Soil (VEGAS) model over the region of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine during 1990–2017. We first optimized the LUCC input data by adjusting the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) data by Russian statistical data and redistributing the spatiotemporal input data from the Historical Database of the Global Environment (HYDE) to the original model. Between 1990 and 2017, the area of cropland abandonment was estimated to be 36.82 Mha, compared to 11.67 Mha estimated by FAO. At the same time, the carbon uptake from the atmosphere to the biosphere was 9.23 GtC (vs fixed cropland 8.24 and HYDE 8.25 GtC) during 1990–2017, which means by optimizing the cropland distribution data, the total carbon absorption during the abandonment process increased by 0.99 GtC. Meanwhile, the growth of the vegetation carbon pool was significantly higher than that of the soil carbon pool. Therefore, we further highlight the importance of accurate cropland distribution data in terrestrial carbon cycle simulation.

The article highlights the research results on the assessment of natural moisture supply in Ukraine, the state of water resources and agricultural production in the face of modern climate change taking into account the forecast for the medium and long term prospects. It was established that the rate of air temperature growth for the period of 1975-2019 in Ukraine ranges from 0.61 to 0.82oC, while in neighboring post-Soviet countries (Russia, Moldova, Belarus) – this figure is 0.47 - 0.59oC, and in the northern hemisphere and Europe – it is 0.34 and 0.47oC respectively. These data show that the rate of air temperature rise in Ukraine is much higher compared to European countries and the whole world. The rapid rise in average annual temperature in Ukraine is not accompanied by a significant increase in precipitation. Its amount in Ukraine as well as in some other regions remains virtually unchanged. Due to the steady increase in temperature, the area of ​​Ukraine with a significant deficit of natural moisture supply for the period of 1990-2015 increased by 7%, and with excessive and sufficient natural moisture supply, on the contrary, decreased by 10%. If the current warming rates are kept until 2050 and 2100, the territory of the country with insufficient humidity will increase up to 56 and 71%, respectively. As a result of such changes, there is a high probability of medium and long-term prospects of increasing arable land with insufficient natural moisture supply up to 20.6 million hectares (67%) and up to 24.9 million hectares (80%) with a simultaneous decrease in arable land with sufficient natural moisture supply up to 5.5 - 1.8 million hectares. At present, the potential total evaporation is 40-45 km3/year higher than in 1990. As a result, despite the decrease in water consumption, the total amount of water consumption taken from the territory of Ukraine is 20-25 km3 higher. Further climate change will lead to an increase in the volume of additional water consumption till 2050 by 80 km3, and till 2100 - by almost 150 km3 compared to 1990. Modern climate change has significantly affected the cropping systems and their productivity at regional level. The average yield of grain and legumes in the Forest-Steppe and Polissya compared to 1990 increased by 46-61%, and in the Steppe it decreased by 10%. A similar trend is observed with regard to the changes in the productivity of other major cereals, except corn, the yield of which increased in all areas, but in the Forest-Steppe and Polissya by 71-82%, and in the Steppe - only by 9%. The general increase in the production of grain and legumes in the country for the last years was only due to more humid regions - Polissya and Forest-Steppe. Climate change, which has already taken place, proved to be favorable for the spread of the most economically profitable crops in the north of the country, while limiting their production in the south. Thus, in the face of climate change, the conditions of moisture supply in the territory of Ukraine are the main limiting factor that limits not only the level of crop productivity, but also the use of natural and anthropogenic potential of agriculture.

Agrarian science in general and a number of agrarian scientists were at the forefront of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR. Researches and knowledge in the field of this science in the republic originated in the last third of the XVIII century. Their formation was accelerated by occurrence of Gory-Goretskaya agricultural school 180 years ago in Mogilev province and of the Institute of Belarusian Culture (Inbelkult) in 1922, which gave start to the Academy of Sciences in 1928. It also included agricultural research institutes, which in 1940 made up 30 % of the total number of research institutions in the BSSR. In 1957–2002 agrarian science was united by the sectoral Academy. In 2002 it was included into the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus again, Department of Agrarian Sciences was created which included 25 research organizations, 7 agricultural and 2 industrial enterprises. Today, agricultural knowledge is formed by the structural sub-divisions of the Agrarian Sciences Division of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, other scientific organizations of the Academy, and their joint researches. There are five leading research and production centers for arable farming, livestock breeding, potato and fruit-and-vegetable farming, mechanization of agriculture and foodstuffs, which combined specialized research all the areas of the country's agro-industrial complex and to strengthening the country's agrarian economy. Agrarian scientists have established close relations with colleagues in many countries of the world, but the closest relations have been established with Russian research institutes: a number of research and technical programs have been implemented within the framework of the Union State of Belarus and Russia. There are many famous people among Belarusian agrarians being highly appreciated by the state. Thus, agrarian science of the Republic of Belarus has passed a serious stage of development throughout its history, retaining connection and tradition of several generations of scientists of fundamental importance for research work in the XXI century.

This paper investigates spatial and temporal features of the climate change in the Republic of Belarus during the period from 1960 to 2019. To accomplish this, we used data on daily average surface air temperature and applied decomposing the time series of these data with singular-spectrum analysis. We analyzed the principal components and long-term average anomalies of average annual, winter and summer air temperatures, the number of frosty days in the cold season and the number of winter days with thaws, the duration and heat supply of the growing season, as well as the frequency and intensity of heat waves. We also estimated the rates of moving the annual sum of active temperatures and the duration of the growing season from the south to the north of Belarus as a result of global warming. The ERA5 reanalysis estimates the spatial and temporal changes in the balance between annual rainfall and potential evaporation from 1980 to 2019. The average annual air temperature in 2000-2019 is shown to be exceeded the long-term average of this value by 1.8° C. The annual sum of active temperatures moves northward at an average speed of 120 km in 10 years with acceleration. Over the past 20 years, the rate of this displacement has doubled in comparison with the period 1980-2000. The length of the growing season moves from the south to the north at a speed of about 110 km per 10 years. It is shown that an increase in potential evaporation due to air warming when slightly changing annual amount of precipitation leads to aridization of the climate of Belarus emitting a reduction in the duration of the cold period with a simultaneous increase in the number of thaws does not contribute to the replenishment of water reserves during snowmelt. Additional damage to forestry and agriculture might be caused by heat waves, the frequency of which for 2000-2019 increased by a factor of 4 compared to the previous 20-year period. Additional damage to forestry and agriculture might be caused by heat waves, which frequency during last 19 years increased by a factor of 4 compared to the previous 20 years.

The article is addressing the dynamics of livestock numbers in public and private agricultural farms and enterprises of Belarus over the years from 1941 to 2021. It is remarked that over a 50-year period the number of pigs increased twice, that of beef cattle increased more than twice, dairy cows – by 1,2 times, goats – by 1,07 times. Over the same period, sheep and horse numbers declined 6,3- and 5,4-fold respectively. Starting from 1991 and up until 2021, the numbers of dairy cows, pigs, sheep and horses declined significantly (37, 43, 78 and 84,3 % respectively).In 2020, as against 1990, the live weight of cattle and poultry made 100,1 % and 108,8 % in carcass weight; milk production made 104,1 %. Per capita production of meat, milk and eggs was respectively 21 kg, 99 kg and 15 pieces more than in previous years. Increased per capita production of the basic animal products not only guarantees food safety in the country, but it also provides with export possibilities inviting the inflow of foreign currencies.

Examines the socio-economic situation of the Western Belarusian lands included in the Polish Republic as a result of the Polish-Soviet war of 1919–1920 in the article. The socio-economic consequences of the "polonization" of Western Belarus are shown. The description of the main reasons for the backwardness of the industrial and agricultural sectors of the Western Belarusian territories is given.

The historical review of the Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus considers all periods of the Institute’s evolution, starting with its organization in 1959, forming the main structural divisions and areas of research and development (1959–1968), structuring these areas and accelerating their development (1969–1990), optimization and headway with a primary focus on the scientific support of important tasks of industry and the agricultural complex of the Republic of Belarus (1991–2019). The information on the formation and development of scientific schools at the Institute, their outstanding achievements and examples of successful implementation of developments in enterprises and organizations of the national economic complex is presented. In chronological order, the results of the activities of the Institute scientists structured by the main scientific areas are reviewed, and references to their published books and monographs are given.

The article presents the results of the analysis of the main directions of the reform of higher technical education of the USSR in the 1930s and their features in Belarus. On the basis of archival materials introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, the specifics of the development of the higher technical school of Belarus are revealed on the example of the Belarusian State Polytechnic Institute (Minsk) and the Belarusian State Mechanical Engineering Institute (Gomel). It is noted that the short period of restructuring of higher education on the principles of Western European approaches soon showed its inconsistency in the USSR. Huge territories, large-scale projects of industrialisation and collectivisation required not a narrow specialist, but an engineer capable of solving complex problems. Agricultural engineering already in 1930 began to abandon the use of Western European models of equipment, which, due to their orientation to the farmer in conditions of the huge size of collective farms and state farms, were unproductive and ineffective. These circumstances contributed to the change in the concept of higher education, which was oriented in 1932 to the consolidation of universities and specialties. The reforms carried out were enshrined in the USSR Constitution of 1936, which allowed the higher school to acquire those features that distinguished it in a favorable light in the world – accessibility, democracy and fundamentality. The liquidation of the All-Union Committee on Higher Technical Education in the same year and the creation of the All-Union Committee onHigher Education meant the completion of the process of building a higher school in the USSR.

The article main goal is research continuation on the development and detailed study of the socio-technological path for a civilizational solution of the critical situation our planet has faced. The key tasks here are import substitution, i.e., technological independence, reducing the energy source export importance for the economy, and the most intensive increase in political, social, technological and economic sovereignty. Moreover, the need in searching for new partners, reorientation exports and imports to new markets, strengthening integration with allied countries (Russia and Belarus), which in fact have confirmed their willingness and ability to collaborate even under strong external pressure — these needs are constantly increasing. The author concerns the creation and application of the Program for Redirecting the Economy of the Union State of Russia and Belarus on the Biosphere Path of Civilizational Development (Program) as the main solution the tasks referred above. The Program can prevent global problems in existing models of civilizational order and the destructive orientation of their technological and social development. The proposed Program is not limited by the Union State boarders and consists of the following biosphere and engineering technologies: relic solar bioenergy; biosphere agriculture; construction technology of cluster-type, pedestrian linear cities; “second level” transport and infrastructure complexes – Unitsky String Transport (uST); non-rocket near space industrialization. These biospheric technologies are complementary. Their complex implementation will make the redirection and global reset of any country economy possible, and primarily the economy of the Union State.

The development of the terminology of each language depends on the socio-cultural conditions in which the carriers of this idiom live. This is a major factor affecting the configuration of the entire terminology system, and the features of its individual parts, and the general tradition of terminology, serving as one of the parties to standardize the literary language. An example of such a establishedness can be the difficult and controversial formation of terminology in the language of the colonized people, which by any cultural acts, even at first glance, the capitulatory, hides the general idea of its resistance to the dominant language and culture. In the social typology of languages, national terminology plays a prominent role, since it affects the characterization of several relevant attributes of the idiom. Terminology directly depends and at the same time to a certain extent determines the power of foreign-language influences, the communicative sphere of language, and also indirectly determines the degree of tradition of the idiom. In other words, it affects half of the parameters required to create a language characteristic by the methods of social typology. Certainly, throughout all history these parameters do not remain constant, vary depending on cultural-historical conditions. Belarusian linguistics has a long tradition of studying the principles and methods of creating terminology. However, terminology in Belarus as an independent scientific discipline was formed only in the second half of the twentieth century. Based on various sources, researchers analyzed botanical, grammatical, entomological, agricultural, philosophical, legal, automotive, water transport, and others varieties of terminology in the Belarusian language. However, the problem of the perception of Ukrainian traditions in the Belarusian terminology has still little studied. In the scientific level, the issues of foreign-language influences on the lexical subsystem of the new Belarusian literary language (respectively, and on the Belarusian terminology) were first raised in the 1920’s when there were active processes of codification of the idiom. Purposeful and scientifically substantiated Belarusian terminology was initiated in 1921-1922, since it was at this time that the first (mathematical) dictionary from the series “Belarusian Scientific Terminology”, as well as 8 terminological collections containing materials on grammar, logic, arithmetic, algebra, botany, geometry, trigonometry. However, the general codification, and hence the beginning of the terms of the Belarusian language, was initiated in 1918, during the First World War, when under the auspices of the occupation headquarters of the German Army in the East, was printed “Sieben-Sprachen Wörterbuch: Deutsch, Polnisch, Russisch, Weißruthenisch, Litauisch, Lettisch, Jiddisch”, is also known in the history of lexicography as “The Lexicon of the Belarusian Language in German Processing”, or the Seven-language Glossary. Vilnius (in the Belarusian tradition for the name of this city was used exonym Vilna) played the role of the leading cultural centre in the Belarusian national revival until the 1930s. In the first half of the 20’s of the twentieth century the study literature originally came out in Vilnius, but only later – in Minsk, which was separated from the western Belarusian lands by the state Polish-Soviet border (in fact since 1919, legally since 1921 – after the signing of the Riga Peace Treaty). Terminology created in the western Belarusian lands during the 1920’s was freely used in Soviet Belarus. Ukrainian influences on Belarusian terminology were not limited to only one era, alternating throughout the period of the formation and development of a new Belarusian literary language. Let’s say they are quite expressive in the nineteenth century, in the 20’s and 30’s of the twentieth century. As a result, a number of elements of Ukrainian origin have been consolidated in the Belarusian linguistic terminology. After the language reform of 1933 and up to our time, the researchers of Belarus mostly focused on studying the role of the Russian language as the main source of borrowing in the field of Belarusian terminology. The influence of Ukrainian tradition on the terminological system of the Belarusian language from the second half of the twentieth century gradually weakens, but it does not fade well in our time. The study of this problem in a wide range of Belarusian texts will allow us to show in which groups of lexicon the perception of Ukrainian traditions are most entrenched.

Defence date: 18 May 2015
Examining Board: Professor Govanni Federico, EUI and University of Pisa, Supervisor; Professor Youssef Cassis, EUI; Professor Vicente Pinilla,University of Zaragoza; Professor/Academic Director, Alexei Pikulik, European University of St.Petersburg/Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies.
This thesis contributes to the existing literature on the agricultural reforms that took place in Central and Eastern European countries during the transformational period (1990-2004) and on the agricultural development in Europe in general in the long-term (1960-2004). The study explores the history of the agricultural transformations in Poland and Belarus through a detailed analysis of the agricultural production and productivity dynamics, aiming to answer (i) whether the reforms succeeded or failed in terms of agricultural production and agricultural productivity; and (ii) what were the determinants of the agricultural reforms' success or failure. The research is centered on a comparative analysis of Polish and Belarusian agricultural performance, but it also incorporates the other CEE countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Russia and Ukraine), as well as the advanced Western European economies.

The article describes the history of cooperation of the I.S. Lupinovich Belarus Agricultural Library of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (BelAL) with foreign information centers and associations in the 1990s – the first half of the 2000s. The goals and directions of this cooperation are outlined; the forms of integration of the Belarusian national agricultural information into the world information space are determined; the results of the interaction of BelAL with international information systems and corporations are analyzed.

The main aim of this paper is to examine international competitiveness of Turkey both in world market and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) in comparison with Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Ukraine, Russia and to determine the value of trade between Turkey and CIS countries. The Revealed Comparative Advantage, Grubel-Lloyd (IIT) and Trade Intensity indices were calculated for sixteen commodity groups over the period 1996–2008 by using WTO data. The results suggest that Turkey is more competitive in CIS market and has comparative advantage in various products. Turkey has comparative advantage not only in agricultural products, food, manufactures, automotive products, textile and clothing as the world market but also in chemicals, pharmaceuticals, machinery-transport equipment, office-telecom equipment and telecommunications vis-à-vis CIS countries. CIS countries exhibit similar comparative advantages in the world market. CIS countries have comparative advantage particularly in fuels and mining products, agricultural products, food, iron and steel but in a decreasing trend. The IIT results indicate that while Turkey approaches intra-industry specialization in agricultural products, food and textile but also manufacture products such as iron and steel, telecommunications equipment, machinery-transport and automotive products. CIS countries’ economy indicates increasing intra-industry trade in agriculture products, food manufactures, iron and steel. It is found that there is an intense relationship between Turkey and CIS countries except Belarus. Bilateral trade flow between Turkey and Azerbaijan, Kyrgyz Republic and the Georgia is extremely larger than these countries’ importance in world trade.

100 years since the Establishment of the State Meadow Institute the Federal Williams Research Center of Forage Production & Agroecology celebrates in June 2022. The State Meadow Institute creation was event of the most important state significance. This event is extremely important for rational nature management, increasing soil fertility, obtaining high and sustainable crop yields, and preserving the productive longevity of our lands. In 1922 the Station for the study of forage plants and forage area was transformed into the State Meadow Institute (SMI). 1930 – SMI was transformed into the All-Union Williams Fodder Research Institute. 1992 – transformation into the All-Russian Williams Fodder Research Institute. 2018 transformation into the Federal Williams Research Center of Forage Production & Agroecology. Throughout its history, the Institute has proudly borne the name of its founder – W. R. Williams. Such famous scientists as V. R. Williams, A. M. Dmitriev, L. G. Ramensky, I. V. Larin, S. P. Smelov, T. A. Rabotnov, A. A. Zubrilin and many others worked at the Institute. The Institute's works (books, articles) have been published in England, Belarus, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Kazakhstan, Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, USA, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Switzerland, Sweden, and Japan. Scientific and practical achievements of the Institute were awarded 7 times with State prizes of the USSR and the Russian Federation in the field of science and technology, as well as Prizes of the government of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of agriculture of the Russian Federation, diplomas of Exhibitions and other awards. For services to the country, the Institute was awarded the order of Labor Red Banner.