Local Farmer Offers Work to Students of ASU

A delegation of Astrakhan State University has visited the Kilinchi Gardens located in Astrakhan Region not far from the regional center. Mr. Alexander Schekin, Farm Manager, has arranged a special excursion for our people and answered their numerous questions.

The excursion took place as part of the recently signed agreement. Farmers of Kilinchi have become the first to initiate a joint project with ASU as part of this cooperation. Our students and professors’ visit to Kilinchi has been quite useful for their further careers. Mr. Schekin pointed out that there is a continuous shortage of qualified specialists to meet the needs of the local farms. One could invite specialists residing in other areas, but there is no sense in that, since it is possible to train professionals, who have been well aware of the local climate and land since their childhood, right in Astrakhan. “We’d welcome future agronomists to our gardens”, he said. “We’re ready to receive job applicants. We could employ a student and help him or her become a real professional. We would make it possible for him or her combine their work with their university studies. Everything is agreeable and negotiable. We need a young, active, and promising member of staff”. The Farm Manager remarked that the facility has the necessary resources to help a valuable staff member tackle their residence or transportation problems; the farm management always pays bonuses and encourages further professional development. Besides, an agronomist working in the Kilinchi gardens can go to Greece and cover a practical training program there. Actually, it was a visit of the delegation of Astrakhan Region (headed by our Governor) to Greece that contributed to renaissance of gardens in our homeland.

The first trees in Kilinchi were planted in 2013; Greek specialists have been supervising the project development for five years. Foreign experts come to the farm regularly to monitor all the processes.

Now the Kilinchi gardens occupy 50 ha. Apples, sweet cherries, plums, and peaches are cultivated there. All the fruits are sold at the Astrakhan market. There is a brand-style package. “If you see fruit in a box with the Astrakhan logo, you may buy it for sure. We guarantee the quality of our produce”. In 2016, a special facility to grow saplings of here sorts of apples by using tree stocks was set up. Mr. Schekin told that saplings were too expensive then, but now they do not have to spend money on them. Not only have the Kilinchi farmers met all their needs, but also they sell their surplus on sites of Astrakhan now. Next to the saplings offered for sale, any buyer can watch their yield samples and see what apples those saplings would yield.

The production is almost wasteless, since sawn branches are used to make chips for smoking.

Such a large agricultural facility requires good machinery; the Kilinchi Gardens have it. Our students were shown the local technical resources; they were told how spraying is carried out, how trickle tubes are applied for irrigation, and how the facility struggles with bird pests.

As Mr. Schekin pointed out, the Kilinchi Gardens are a modern professional facility with real prospects of further development. It has all the resources to train qualified agrarians.