February 24, 2022
The multifunctionality of soils (e.g. provision of food, source of genetic resources, mitigation of climate change) makes them as important as water for the well-being of societies. Sustainable and rehabilitative soil management must aim at securing and rehabilitating this multifunctionality for a sound ecological and strong economic development of Central Asia. Prerequisites for this are a revitalization of education in soil science, a sound assessment of the spatio-temporal resolved soil properties and functionalities, and technical and scientific innovation and digitalization. We commonly address problems and challenges in soil management and formulate possible solutions based on the establishment of a Central Asian Soil Competence Network into a policy brief.
Prof. Dr. Georg Guggenberger,
Director of the Institute of Soil Science of Leibniz University Hannover
Dr. Peter Liebelt,
University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
Dr. Olga Shibistova,
Leibniz University Hannover
Jörg Andreas Dinkelaker,
The Agrarian Credit Corporation "Baiterek", Dinkel Consult
Dr. Viktoriya Krylova,
Kazakh-German University, Kazakhstan
Non-Commercial Partnership “National Movement for Conservation Agriculture”, Russian Federation
Sustainable Cropping Systems, Plant Production and Protection, FAO, Italy
Leibniz University Hannover, Germany
Ministry of Innovative Development, Republic of Uzbekistan
Orlova Ludmila - is the president of the National Movement for Saving Agriculture, the editor-in-chief of the "Resource Saving Agriculture" journal, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, a member of the Russian Union of Entrepreneurs and Industrialists, co-chairman from the Russian side of the Russian-German Agrarian Committee, chairman of the General Meeting of the Founders of the Agricultural Training Foundation, member of the German-Russian forum, head of the Eurotechnika GPS company, member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Mechanical Engineers Rosagromash, member of the Coordinating Committee of the Petersburg Dialogue Forum, vice-president of the NSBE. She is the initiator of the development of legislative acts to create favorable conditions for agricultural production and the development of raw materials markets in Russia, and has been awarded high awards for organizing and mastering the production of highly efficient agricultural equipment.
Muminjanov Hafiz - is a technical adviser of the Division of Plant Production and Plant Protection of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). In 1991 he defended his candidate's and in 2000 his doctoral dissertations. Conducted active research work at the Research Institute of Biotechnology, teaching at the Department of Plant Physiology and Biotechnology of the Tajik Agrarian University. Since the 2000s worked as a coordinator of joint international projects for the development of breeding and seed production. He takes part in a number of international programs in India, Israel, Mexico, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Thailand. In 2002 he received the certificate of professor. From 2010 to 2018, he worked at the FAO Sub-regional Office for Central Asia in Ankara (Turkey) and coordinated projects and programs in the field of crop production and plant protection in seven countries of the region - Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. During this period, a number of interesting projects were implemented to introduce and disseminate soil-protective and resource-saving agriculture, integrated plant protection, organic agriculture, the development of greenhouse vegetable production and intensive gardens, strengthening the seed production system and registering pesticides. Since December 2018, he has been based at FAO Headquarters in Rome, Italy and has been coordinating global programs and initiatives on crop production and plant protection.
Prof. Dr. Georg Guggenberger (Dr. in Soil Sciences 1992; Habiliation in Soil Sciences 1998) is Director of the Institute of Soil Science of Leibniz University Hannover. He focuses on biotic-abiotic interactions in soil formation, soil organic matter turnover, and the response of soils on climate and land use change. Together with partners worldwide, he is employing basic knowledge gained in these process studies to identify options for sustainable soil and land use. He is experienced partner, work package leader and speaker of coordinated projects (e.g., EU: CarboExtreme; German Research Foundation: MadSoil, Subsoil; German Ministry of Education and Research: CATCHY, KULUNDA, ReKKS) and integrated PhD programs (national: GeoFluxes, Plant-Soil-Interface; international: TransTiP). He was President and now is Past President of the German Soil Science Society, focusing on the interaction of soil science with the society and policy. In 2017 he was awarded by the European Cultura Award in in 2020 by the Phlippe-Duchaufour Medal of the European Geosciences Union. He has (co-)authored >250 ISI publications and was listed for several years as WoS highly cited scientist. In 2018, he received the Teaching Award of the Faculty of Natural Sciences.
Turdikulova Shahlo Utkurovna In 1995 she graduated from the Biology Faculty of the Tashkent State University (now National University of Uzbekistan). Dr. Shahlo Turdikulova was awarded with her PhD degree in Biotechnology (2001) and Doctor of Sciences in Biochemistry and Cell Biology (2008) from the National University of Uzbekistan. Prof. Turdikulova completed her postdoctoral training at the University of California (Los Angeles, USA) in 2002-2005. Since 2005, she has held the position of chief researcher in a number of state grants and has been a lecturer in biotechnology and genetic engineering for students of the Faculty of Biotechnology of the National University of Uzbekistan. Since 2010, she has been the National Coordinator of the FP7 and Horizon 2020 programs in the field of healthcare. Dr. Shahlo Turdikulova has successfully conducted a number of scientific studies in the field of genetics of the Uzbek population. In cooperation with international colleagues she published a number of papers in the recognized scientific journals. She was the first scientist in Uzbekistan who published in “Nature” journal. She also has publications in “Genome Research”, “PLOS Genetics”, “Biochemical Journal”, “Nature Ecology & Evolution”. In 2019 Prof. Shahlo Turdikulova has established the first science startup accelerator in Central Asia to help young scientists to develop their own startups and bring the innovations to the market.