Polissia National University
Polissia National University is the only state-owned agricultural university of ecological direction and the only national institution of higher education in Zhytomyr region, which is the base for training specialists for most branches of economy of the Polissia of Ukraine (Zhytomyr, Rivne, Volyn regions). Our University was founded in 1922. At present it has 8 Faculties (Agronomy, Accounting and Finance, Farm Engineering, Veterinary Medicine, Ecology, Forestry, Economics and Management, Technological), 42 Departments, 5 Scientific and Innovation Institutes, 8000 students, 550 persons of teaching staff.
The University prepares unique specialists in the areas of organic agriculture, veterinary hygiene, sanitation and expertise, agronomy, aquatic biodiversity and aquaculture, plant protection and quarantine, technologies of production and processing of livestock products and many others that become the most promising and demanded in the labor market. Faculties of the university prepare specialists qualified for most sectors of the regional economy (industry, agriculture, forestry and fishery, construction, trade, financial and insurance activities), state agencies and local governments.
Given the agro-ecological status, most of scientific and innovative activities of the University are focused on ecological issues, in particular the development of the production of environmentally friendly products, and the safety of food and water. Polissia Center for Organic Production is a university’s subdivision, whose purpose is to stimulate the development of organic production in the region, and to promote, on this basis, the implementation of tasks aimed at ensuring the sustainable development of rural areas, reproduction of soil fertility and preservation of the environment, ensuring the consumer market of healthy quality products, improving the image of the region as a producer of high-quality organic products and ensuring the state's food security on this basis.
Practical skills of students are acquired through the activities of the university's research field, as well as cooperation with organic farms in Zhytomyr region, on the basis of which research on the development of technology for the production and processing of organic products is conducted. From April 2018, in cooperation with colleagues from Denmark, an international project on integrated scientific research and practical directions of productivity formation, peculiarities of growth and development of adaptive properties and competitiveness of plants of modern hybrids of grain sorghum using organic methods of production is being implemented.
The course "Organic production", which includes advanced European methods for producing environmentally friendly products and environmental safety, is taught at seven university departments. For the sixth consecutive year, the International Scientific and Practical Conference "Organic Production and Food Safety" was held at the University, which became a large-scale branch for scientific discussions of scientists, manufacturers and management personnel from different countries of the world. The University plays a leading role in the development of regional development programs, namely, "Integrated Environmental Protection Program in Zhytomyr Oblast for 2014-2017 and 2018-2022 years", "Integrated Program for Supporting the Development of Organic Production of Zhytomyr Region for 2016-2020", etc.
On the basis of the University the international project “German-Ukrainian Cooperation in Organic Agriculture” is implemented. Its purpose is assistance in the improvement of expert’s and technician staff’s knowledge in organic agriculture. As far as the northern part of Ukraine is an area exposed to radioactive contamination because of the Chernobyl accident, a separate area of scientific research of the University is the problem of the revival of radioactively contaminated territories, since agricultural production in this area is perhaps the only way to obtain food products. In this direction, the university studies the regularities of the change in the radiation situation in the distant period after the Chernobyl accident, as well as the radiation-hygienic assessment of agroeco-systems and University specialists carry out radiation monitoring of soils and foodstuffs, long-term forecasting and risk assessment of radionuclide migration in natural and man-made ecosystems of the radioactively contaminated zone when returning these territories to commercial use.
The scientists of the university are widely studied the issue of production of environmentally friendly feed. Such studies are concentrated in the agronomic and technological faculties. The main source of feed and vegetable protein production in this region is seeded agrophytocenoses in fodder crop rotations and single species crops, as well as grass meadow ecosystems after their improvement. That is why the issue of regulating their productivity and improving their food security is one of the priority directions of scientific research at the university. Specialists of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine are deeply studying the issues of sustainable development of rural areas, providing the consumer market with safe products, improving the image of the region as a producer of quality products and ensuring the food security of the state on this basis. To implement this goal large-scale research on animal raw materials and food products using modern methods is carried out.
The University is actively pursuing scientific and educational activities and it aims in future at a central position in the region regarding food and feed quality assurance. For this purpose, at present, the university is undertaking large-scale work on the organization of the laboratory of water quality, agrochemical and organic laboratories, laboratory of control of quality and safety of products of animal origin, which are provided with the necessary equipment and specialists for almost 90%, etc.
