SCIENTIFIC COOPERATION BETWEEN THE FEDERAL RESEARCH CENTRE THE SUBTROPICAL SCIENTIFIC CENTRE OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES WITH THE INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF ABKHAZIA

The Black Sea coast of the Caucasus is a unique region where warm winters, significant rainfall, and a long growing season allow the development of subtropical crop production. The history of scientific cooperation between Federal Research Centre the Subtropical Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Agriculture of the Academy of Sciences of Abkhazia dates back 130 years and was started upon the organization of Sochi and Sukhumi Agricultural and Horticultural Experimental Stations. There is an active joint research in three areas: conservation and study of plants genetic resources (mainly subtropical crops), plant physiology and biochemistry (regulation of the physiological plant state, study of plant adaptive potential, analysis of varietal specifications of fruits), plant protection (research of pest complexes and pathogens of cultivated plants, identification of new pest species for the region and study of their biology, improvement protection systems for southern fruit and subtropical crops). According to their results, scientists of the Subtropical Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Agriculture of the Academy of Sciences of Abkhazia have published about 80 scientific publications for the last 10 years. A huge joint work has been carried out by the two institutions to train highly qualified scientific personnel. Seven young scientists from the Institute of Agriculture of the Academy of Sciences of Abkhazia were trained at the Graduate School of the Subtropical Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the period from 2005 to 2021. Candidate's dissertations were defended in the specialties "Fruit growing, viticulture", "Plant protection", "Agrochemistry, agro-soil science, plant protection and quarantine". The purpose of further scientific cooperation has been defined, which determines the conduct of comprehensive fundamental research on plant genetic resources conservation; the study of patterns of subtropical crops resistance formation to abiotic and biotic environmental factors; study of harmful organisms invasion mechanisms; improvement and development of environmentally safe integrated protection systems for subtropical crops; development of methods for optimizing the humification-mineralization and nitrogen fixation processes, predictive models of meteorological dependence of soil fertility parameters and fertilizer efficiency; comprehensive assessment of soil conditions and their agrogenic changes.