Russia
2006 
K-State’s Master of Agribusiness program continued
the offer of international travel with a two-week trip
focused on Russian agriculture with stops in Moscow,
Tula and St. Petersburg.
A group of 24 MAB students and alumni,
faculty and staff, and other agriculturalists traveled
to Russia and participated in the second MAB international
food and agribusiness trip. During the 12-day tour,
the group visited various agricultural and food related
facilities including a dairy farm and broiler facility.
The tour also included visits to Cargill's refined vegetable
oil and sweetener plant in Efremov and a Caterpillar
welding facility in St. Petersburg, as well as presentations
by representatives from Monsanto and the Analytical
Centre of Agri-Food Economics in Moscow. Participants
learned about Russian agricultural education during
visits to Moscow State Agroengineering and St. Petersburg
State Agrarian universities. Time was also set aside
for sightseeing the many historical sights in Moscow
and St. Petersburg.
 Why
Russia?
Russia occupies more than one tenth of the agricultural
land on earth including very large areas of black soils,
with very favorable climactic conditions with enormous
production and efficiency potentials. The Russian population
however, represents less than 2.5 percent of the world
population. Therefore, Russia may become a main supplier
of world food markets. The increase of yield in the
production of grain of about one ton per hectare seems
to be realistic, and would flood another 50 million
tons of grain on to the world markets. This would almost
equal the sum of North American exports.
Max Irsik, MAB Alum and tour participant
said, "It was a great trip, a wonderful chance
to interact with not only MAB faculty, students, and
alumni but also other agriculturists from across the
U.S. The trip to Russia gave me a much greater appreciation
for Agriculture in the United States."
For information about future international
trips, please contact Mary Bowen, mjbowen@agecon.ksu.edu
or 785.532.4435.
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