Agricultural Scientific Research Institutes

scientific institutions that conduct research on agriculture.

Agricultural scientific research institutes have several fundamental tasks. They conduct theoretical research in the principal fields of agricultural science, indicate fundamentally new ways of achieving technological progress in agriculture, and improve research methods and thus contribute to both theory and research effectiveness. They study and synthesize the achievements of world science and contribute to the widest possible application of such achievements in agricultural production on kolkhozes and sovkhozes. Finally, they train researchers in postgraduate and doctoral programs, as well as in programs that do not interrupt the normal course of scientific work.

Agricultural scientific research institutes have been founded, primarily in the 20th century, in various countries. Previously, research on agriculture had been done primarily in actual field-work and at experiment stations and other small scientific institutions. Agricultural stations were established in Rothamsted (near London) in 1835, in Möckern (near Leipzig) in 1852, and in Connecticut, USA, in 1875. The Pasteur Institute, founded in France in 1888, did the most important work of the 19th century on plant chemistry and genetics, entomology, and veterinary medicine. In 1894, in what is now Yugoslavia, the Institute of Adriatic Coast Crops was established, with separate divisions on soil science and plant nutrition, agricultural chemistry, the cultivation of field crops and vegetables, and viticulture and wine making; the Institute of Grain Crops was founded in 1898. In Great Britain the John Innes Institute was organized, in 1910, for research on the genetics, cytology, and physiology of plants; the National Institute for Research in Dairying and the Plant Breeding Institute were founded in 1912. Agricultural scientific research institutes emerged in other countries at about the same time.

In the USSR most agricultural scientific research institutes were launched during the first years of Soviet power. In 1922 the State (Central) Institute of Experimental Agronomy was established in Moscow. In 1924, under the direction of Academician N. I. Vavilov, the All-Union Institute of Applied Botany and New Crops was formed in Leningrad out of the Bureau for Applied Botany and Plant Breeding; it is now known as the All-Union Institute of Horticulture. In 1919 the V I. Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences was founded; between 1929 and 1932, on its initiative, more than 100 scientific research institutes were established in various regions of the USSR. In 1947 the USSR had 111 agricultural scientific research institutes, with a large network of branch institutes, experiment stations, and other, smaller facilities. By 1963, it had 177 such institutes. As of Jan. 1, 1974, the Ministry of Agriculture of the USSR had a network of 222 scientific research institutes, which employed 35,000 research workers, including 850 doctors of sciences and more than 13,500 candidates of sciences.

The ail-Union agricultural scientific research institutes are directly subordinate to the Ministry of Agriculture of the USSR and the V. I. Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Republic institutes are subordinate to local agricultural bodies. In terms of their work, agricultural scientific research institutes are either integrated or specialized.

USSR. The Ministry of Agriculture of the USSR has under its jurisdiction the major all-Union agricultural scientific research institutes and all their branch institutes, experiment stations, and other facilities. Some institutes study plants and crops—for example, feed crops (institute founded 1930; located in Lugovaia, Moscow Oblast), flax (1930; Torzhok, Kalinin Oblast), tea and subtropical crops (1930, Makharadze), horticulture (1931; Michurinsk; the institute is named for I. V. Mi-churin), tobacco and Indian tobacco (1934; Krasnodar), bast crops (1944; Glukhov, Sumy Oblast), sugar beets (1945; Kiev), oil plants (1965; Simferopol’), and irrigated vegetables, melons, and gourds (1966; Astrakhan Oblast). Other such institutes treat the various aspects of animal husbandry and other problems—for example, horse breeding (1930; Riazan’ Oblast), poultry husbandry (1931; Zagorsk), sheep and goat raising (1932; Stavropol’), the raising of Karakul sheep (1935; Samarkand), veterinary sanitation (1955; Moscow), agricultural economics (1955; Moscow), and poultry diseases (1964; Leningrad).

The V. I. Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences has under its jurisdiction institutes devoted to the principal branches of agricultural science and production. All-Union institutes include the N. I. Vavilov Institute of Horticulture (1924; Leningrad), the V. V. Dokuchaev Soil Institute (1927; Moscow), the Institute of Plant Protection (1929; Leningrad), the Institute for Agricultural Microbiology (1930; Leningrad), the Institute of Agricultural Afforestation (1931; Volgograd), the D. N. Prianishnikov Institute of Fertilizers and Soil Science (1931; Moscow), and the Institute of Agronomic Physics (1932; Leningrad). Other all-Union institutes study oil plants (1932; Krasnodar), grains (1956; Shortandy, Tselinograd Oblast), grains (1956; Dnepropetrovsk), and rice (1966; Krasnodar). Still others are devoted to animal husbandry and other aspects of agriculture—for example, the mechanization of agriculture (1930; Moscow), the electrification of agriculture (1931; Moscow), experimental veterinary medicine (1918; Moscow), and animal husbandry (1929; Moscow Oblast). The Academician K. I. Skriabin All-Union Institute of Helminthology (1931; Moscow) is also well known.

The largest scientific research institutes under the Ministry of Agriculture of the RSFSR are 18 integrated agricultural institutes, each located in one of the RSFSR’s principal regions of agricultural production. The foremost institutes include the V. V. Dokuchaev Institute of Agriculture of the Central Chernozem Zone (1956; Voronezh Oblast); other prominent institutes are located in the Southeast (1955; Saratov), the Krasnodar region (1956; Krasnodar), and the central nonchernozem zone (1959; Moscow). Siberia and the Soviet Far East have several important regional institutes, including the ones in Omsk (1933), Khabarovsk (1935), Barnaul (1950), Krasnoiarsk Krai (1953), Sverdlovsk (1956), Iakutsk (1956), and Noril’sk (1957).

The all-Russian agricultural scientific research institutes are the major specialized institutes. They specialize in the mechanization and electrification of agriculture (1930; Zernograd, Rostov Oblast), viticulture and wine making (1936; Novocherkassk), sugar beets and the production of sugar (1959; Voronezh Oblast), horticulture and viticulture in the Northern Caucasus (1958; Krasnodar), and horticulture in the nonchernozem zone (1960; Moscow, Biriulevo). Other agricultural scientific research institutes do research on vegetable growing (1930; Mytischchi, Moscow Oblast), potato growing (1930; Korenevo, Moscow Oblast), and the breeding of fur-bearing animals and rabbits (1932; Moscow Oblast). The Soviet Far Eastern Veterinary Institute (1935; Blagoveshchensk) is well known.

The other Union republics also have major agricultural scientific research institutes—for example, institutes of land cultivation, with their networks of experiment stations and other facilities, and institutes that specialize in the branches of agriculture best developed locally.

Major agricultural problems also come under the purview of the institutes of other ministries and agencies, such as the Ministry of Tractor and Farm Machine Building, the All-Union Board for the Supply of Farm Machinery, Fuel, and Fertilizers, the Ministry of Land Reclamation and Water Use Management, the Ministry of the Food-processing Industry, the State Procurements Committee, the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of the Chemical Industry, the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and the academies of sciences of the Union republics.

At several prominent agricultural scientific research institutes, the academic councils—deliberative bodies, under the director, that review and coordinate the institute’s research —have the right to confer doctoral and candidate’s degrees.

Abroad. In the USA most basic agricultural research is done in 4 regional centers: in Beltsville, Md., in the Northeast, in California in the West, in Illinois in the north-central region, and in Louisiana in the South. Organized in 1972, the centers consist of several large research units, each with a different field of specialization. The center in Beltsville, for example, has nine separate institutes—on plant genetics and germ plasma, plant physiology, plant protection, environmental quality, animal parasitology, animal physiology and genetics, insect identification and the introduction of useful insects, the marketing of agricultural production, and nutrition. The nine institutes together have 67 laboratories. The regional centers plan and coordinate the work of more than 300 agricultural experiment stations, which do applied research in the appropriate local conditions.

Canada has several large agricultural scientific research institutes, including institutes on plant genetics and breeding, horticulture, soil science, and animal husbandry, all located in Ottawa. Great Britain has an institute of grassland research in Hurley and an institute of animal physiology in Cambridge. India has an institute of agriculture, which attained university status in 1958, in Delhi. France has the National Institute of Agronomy Research, located in Paris, which integrates the national center of agricultural chemistry, located in Versailles; the national center of zootechny, located in the department of Seine-et-Oise; and more than 200 experiment stations, laboratories, and experimental farms. The Federal Republic of Germany has a federal biological center on agriculture and forestry (Berlin, Braunschweig), with a corresponding network of institutes and laboratories; it also has an institute for the study of plant-products quality in Geisenheim and a federal experimental and research center on dairying, located in Kiel. Japan’s leading agricultural scientific research institutes include the national Institute of Agricultural Sciences and the Food Research Institute in Tokyo and the National Institute of Animal Industry in Chiba Prefecture.

Bulgaria has major agricultural scientific research institutes on plant genetics and breeding, agricultural mechanization, and tractor and agricultural-machine building, all in Sofia. It has a viticulture and wine-making institute and a feed-crops institute in Pleven and a wheat and sunflower institute in Tolbukhin. The Dimitrov Institute of Animal Husbandry is located in Kostinbrod. Hungary has institutes on agricultural economics, animal husbandry, and horticulture; it also has a state institute on viticulture and wine making, located in Budapest. Rumania has institutes devoted to grain and industrial crops, agrarian economics, land improvement and soil science, plant protection, and veterinary medicine and an institute for animal medicines, located in Bucharest.

Czechoslovakia has institutes on plant production, animal production, and agricultural technology, all in Prague. Poland has institutes on animal genetics and breeding, plant breeding and acclimatization, and mechanization and electrification of agriculture (all in Warsaw). The German Democratic Republic has an institute of crop cultivation and horticulture in Müncheberg, an institute of agricultural economics in Netzow, an institute of agricultural mechanization in Potsdam, an institute of plant breeding in Bernburg, an institute of grain crops in Hadmersleben, an institute of marshland, meadowland, and pastureland in Paulinenaue, and an institute of animal husbandry in Dommersdorf. Yugoslavia has an institute of agriculture in Novi Sad, an institute of agricultural economics in Belgrade, an institute of agricultural mechanization in Belgrade-Zemun, an institute of feed crops in Kruŝevac, and institutes of animal husbandry in Sarajevo and Novi Sad.