Voronezh SAU held a Summer school

In the period from August 25 to 31, Voronezh SAU held a Summer School for foreign students from African countries on the educational track “Innovative technologies in crop production," as well as the cultural and historical track.

The participants of the Summer School were 15 students and graduates of Russian universities from 10 African countries: Senegal, Mauritania, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea Republic, Cameroon and Zambia.

The educational block of the Summer School program included lectures by leading teachers of the Faculty of Agronomy, Agrochemistry and Ecology on the current topics, such as: unmanned technologies in crop production, innovative technologies for cultivation of major crops, application of robotic technologies in agriculture, etc. The lectures were delivered by the leading teachers of the faculties of agronomy, agrochemistry, and ecology.

Professor of the Department of Agriculture, Plant Production, and Plant Protection, S.V. Kadyrov, gave lectures on the topic “Smart SMART technologies. Technologies of “big data” and the Internet of Things in agriculture," together with Associate Professor of the Department of Agrochemistry, Soil Science, and Agroecology P.I. Podrezov, familiarized the listeners with the technology of UAV application in agriculture, parallel driving systems, and showed a master class on the use of unmanned technologies in crop production.  Also leading teachers of the faculty R.N. Lutsenko, M.A. Nesmeyanova, V.A. Zadorozhnaya, and A.N. Tsykalov presented lectures on organic farming, application of innovative technologies of cultivation of grain crops, harvesting and storage of seeds, and improvement of sowing qualities of seeds in the process of cultivation. Professor V.N. Obraztsov, Head of the Department of Agriculture, Plant Production, and Plant Protection, familiarized the Summer School participants with innovative technologies in forage production.

The program of the summer school included a visit to one of the leading agricultural enterprises, EkoNiva-APK Holding, where the students could visit the production sites of the company. Also, a tour to the production sites of Baltika Brewery LLC, Russia's leading enterprise, was prepared and conducted for the program participants.

As part of the cultural and historical block, the trainees were offered fascinating excursions around the city of Voronezh. The Summer School participants visited the Voronezh museum “Petrovsky Ships.”. With great interest, the participants of the program visited a unique ship museum, Goto Predestination. An excursion wqas organised to the natural architectural and archaeological museum reserve "Divnogorje," which is a candidate for inclusion in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

The 'business card' of Divnogorye is chalk cliffs-islands (divas), in one of which a cave complex with the temple of the Sicilian icon of the Mother of God is cut out. In addition, the children visited the Voronezh Oceanarium, the only one in the Central Black Earth Region.

At the end of the summer school, participants received certificates, memorable gifts, and souvenirs. The participants express their gratitude to the university management and to everyone who supported and organized this event.