History of the Department
HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENT
The Department of Agrochemistry was established in 1921 within the Faculty of Agronomy at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. In 2001, the department was renamed the O.I. Dushechkin Department of Agrochemistry and Crop Production Quality (Order No. 485 of 10 December 2001).
From 1922 to 1956, the department was headed by Professor Alexander Ivanovich Dushechkin. In addition to the core course in agrochemistry, the department offered courses on the biochemical basis of fertilisers, methods of agrochemical research, and crop fertilisation systems.
In the pre-war period, the department worked on studying the transformation of nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium and potassium in the soil, methods of improving fertiliser efficiency, justifying fertilisation systems for individual crops, and researching crop quality.
The Head of the Department of Agrochemistry, Academician O.I. Dushechkin, established a world-renowned school of agrochemistry, which made its mark through the development of the theory and practice of crop nutrition, the study of nutrient cycles, the development of principles for the storage and use of organic fertilisers, and the introduction of effective technologies for the use of mineral fertilisers, green manure and domestic phosphates to improve soil fertility in the Polissya region of Ukraine. The colleagues and followers of this school were eminent scientists who worked in various institutions and establishments of the former Soviet Union: Professors V.S. Denisyevsky, P.A. Girk, I.L. Kolosha, I.S. Mironovsky; Associate Professors M.B. Gilis, M.F. Khokhol, T.Ya. Podolich, O.Ya. Baryshpol, U.M. Volynska, G.K. Sulzhenko and others.
From 1956 to 1971, the Department of Agrochemistry was headed by Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, Professor Petro Antypovych Vlasyuk, who simultaneously held the post of Director of the Institute of Plant Physiology and Agrochemistry.
P.A. Vlasyuk is rightly regarded as the founder of the study of trace elements in Ukraine. He proved that trace elements are essential to plants as nutrients, thereby refuting the prevailing scientific view of the time that regarded trace elements as mere stimulants, ‘irritants’, ‘exciters’ or ‘incidental elements’. He proposed a method for enriching plant seeds with trace elements.
Under his leadership, maps were compiled showing the content of trace elements (manganese, molybdenum, boron, cobalt, zinc, copper) in the soils of Ukraine, and technologies were developed for the production and application of superphosphates,
nitrophoska and other fertilisers containing trace elements. Also of great significance are P.A. Vlasyuk’s works on the physiological justification of foliar feeding of plants with trace elements.
P.A. Vlasyuk established a prominent scientific school, whose members include: Academicians M.M. Gorodniy and I.M. Gudkov; Professors A.P. Lisoval, D.Y. Lavrentovich and A.G. Serdyuk; Associate Professors I.U. Marchuk, Mazurkevych L.I., Balabayko V.F. and others.
From 1971 to 1978, the department was headed by Professor Petro Oleksiyovych Gorshkov, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, who served as director of the All-Union Research Institute of Bast Crops during the 1950s and 1960s.
P.O. Gorshkov’s research focused on plant nutrition and the use of fertilisers for hemp and other major agricultural crops. He studied the effect of mineral fertilisers on the yield formation of wheat, maize, sugar beet and hemp; on the phosphate regime of the soil, and the total content and forms of potassium in the soil. P.O. Gorshkov’s research represents a significant contribution to the development of the theory of plant nutrition and the rational use of fertilisers.
He established a scientific school whose areas of interest included research into plant nutrition and the recycling of elements within plants, as well as the uptake of nutrients from fertilisers by agricultural crops. His followers include Professor B.E. Yakubenko, Associate Professors V.M. Makarenko, N.Ya. Yarygina, V.E. Rozstalny, S.M. Kravchenko, B.M. Moiseenko and others.
From 1978 to 1989, the Department of Agrochemistry was headed by Professor Anatoliy Petrovych Lisoval, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences. His research focused on the transformation of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium compounds in soil, the enzymatic activity of soil, the application of nitrification inhibitors, and the use of agrochemical soil indicators to predict certain diseases and pests.
He tested and refined a methodology for studying the fractional composition of organophosphorus compounds in soil.
The main focus of his school’s scientific research was the study of plant nutrition and the transformation of nutrients in the soil, soil biological activity, the effectiveness of fertiliser application with the aim of targeted production of high-quality crops, the improvement of crop cultivation technologies, the preservation and enhancement of soil fertility; and the refinement of methods
for determining fertiliser rates for winter wheat under intensive cultivation techniques.
Among his followers were: Professor V.P. Kalensky; N.P. Kostenko, O.G. Kovalenko, M.V. Pravilov, O.V. Mudrak, Z.I. Boiko and others.
From 1989 to 2006, the department was headed by Academician, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences and Professor Mykola Mykhailovych Horodniy.
He pioneered and developed a new field of research—the bioconversion of organic waste and the establishment of biodynamic farms—for the first time in the CIS countries. He developed the technology and obtained patents for the production of new slow-release fertilisers with a synchronous effect based on brown coal, ‘Tekos-1’ and ‘Tekos-2’, and a bio-organic fertiliser based on sewage sludge from the city of Kyiv.
Academician M.M. Gorodniy established a scientific school, the main research areas of which are the bioconversion of organic waste and the creation of biodynamic farms; the formulation of scientific principles for the use of fertilisers and the optimisation of crop nutrition to produce high-quality produce; the development of new slow-release fertilisers; the development of scientific principles for the use of the latest methods of crop nutrition diagnosis and precision farming.
Among the followers of this school are: Professors A.V. Bikin and P.P. Nadtochii; Associate Professors N.M. Bykina, S.M. Adamenko, S.S. Kokhan, O.M. Hengalo, S.M. Kavetskyi, P.M. Kyveriga and I.V. Loginova; O.V. Gryshchenko, M.M. Movchan, I.M. Smetanska and others.
Since 2006, the department has been headed by Anatoliy Viktorovich Bikin, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, Professor and Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences. Anatoliy V. Bikin’s research interests focus on the bioconversion of organic waste to produce new types of fertilisers; technologies for the production and use of vermicompost in biodynamic agriculture; and the introduction of intensive cultivation technologies for vegetable and field crops.
Representatives of his scientific school are working on optimising plant nutrition conditions to enhance the productivity of agroecosystems under various farming systems; and improving vegetable crop cultivation techniques.
Among the followers of his school are: V.D. Chaika, N.A. Pasichnyk, S. P., Polischuk I.P., Bordyuzha N.P., Slyusar O.V., Semenko L.O., Aksylenko M.D., Tarasenko O.V., Kozachok O.L., Bordyuzha I.P., Panchuk T.V. and others.