On September 18, Dr. Ismail Abdelhamid, IOFS Advisor for Research and Technology, visited the A. I. Barayev Research and Production Center for Grain Farming to familiarise himself with the agricultural potential of Kazakhstan in grain production and exchange views on IOFS projects.
A meeting with the management and scientists of the center took place. At the round table, the participants held discussions about the ‘Achievements and development of spring wheat breeding in Northern Kazakhstan’.
In his speech, acting Director-General Bakyt Irmulatov noted that more than 21 thousand samples of spring wheat are being studied in various breeding nurseries annually. More than 400 crossing combinations of local adaptive varieties with economically valuable traits are carried out; there is also a large gene pool of spring wheat from various countries: Kazakhstan, Russia, Australia, Canada , international center CIMMYT, South Africa, India, Afghanistan, France, USA, China, Sweden and others. More than 6500 samples are stored for medium-term, and the gene pool is replenished with 70 varieties annually. In addition, the selection samples undergo a technological assessment against 22 indicators of quality.
The A. I. Barayev Research and Production Center for Grain Farming has been identified as the Regional Center of Excellence in the Asian Subgroup II of the OIC member states. This center, in turn, would hold and coordinate training programmes and research among OIC member states in their respective areas.
During the visit, the parties discussed further actions of the Barayev center as the Regional Center of Excellence and other promising areas of mutually beneficial cooperation.
