On July 7, 2026, a field meeting of the Land Reclamation Section of the Academic Council of the Agrophysical Research Institute was held at the agricultural field of the Gatchinskoye Breeding Farm. The meeting focused on the urgent issues of reconstructing drainage systems in modern economic and natural conditions. The participants included members of the Land Reclamation Section, specialists and managers of the agricultural enterprise, land reclamation experts, as well as invited postgraduate students from the Agrophysical Research Institute, professors, and students from the Saint Petersburg State Agrarian University.
The purpose of this field meeting was to familiarize the postgraduate students of the Agro-Physical Institute and the students of the St. Petersburg State Agrarian University with the developments of the Agro-Physical Institute in the field of assessment and identification of reclamation systems using remote sensing methods, and to demonstrate their practical application on the example of the reclamation systems of JSC Gatchinskoye and other farms. Postgraduate students studying in the specialty "Land reclamation, water management and agrophysics" who took part in the event learned from the mouth of professional practitioners about the reconstruction of the drainage system for hay crops, about the norms of drainage, the problems of overgrowth of channels and siltation of drainage. Postgraduate students saw the old pottery drainage and newly constructed drainage channels that appeared as a result of the reconstruction. The event coincided with the plowing of the field, which allowed them to see the soil heterogeneity and erosion processes in practice and compare them with the soil map. The rain that caught the visitors clearly demonstrated the work of the drainage system.
The following speakers addressed the audience at the reconstructed Vopsha hayfield: the designer A.V. Iskra, the contractor, the General Director of Meliorator LLC, and the Honored Land Reclamation Worker of the Russian Federation A.L. Zakin. Words of appreciation for the high professionalism from the customer of the work, Director of JSC Gatchinskoe Lebedev A.V., were addressed to the designer A.V. Iskra, contractor A.L. Zakin and an employee of the Agrophysical Institute, agrochemist P.A. Sukhanov. After the speeches, a discussion began, in which the head of the land reclamation section of the Scientific Council of the Agrophysical Institute, corresponding member, took part. RAS A.I. Ivanov, students and teachers of the Agrarian University, graduate students and members of the section.
At the end of the discussion, the specialists of the Agro-Physical Institute demonstrated ready-made solutions that allow to increase the efficiency of the survey of the technical condition of drainage reclamation systems. In particular, the OKO-3 georadar was presented and its successful operation was demonstrated on the example of searching for a single drain. The participants of the event could also get acquainted with the mobile modular drain-washing complex of the Agro-Physical Institute. The designer of the reconstruction project for the Vopsha hayfield, A.V. Iskra, illustrated a section of the reconstruction project that used a remote method of surveying reclamation systems based on the methodology of the Agrophysical Research Institute using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
At the end of the event and its summation, the Honored Land Reclamation Expert of the Russian Federation, Yu.G. Yanko, spoke, who noted that on April 26, 2026, the Presidium of the Council of Legislators of the Russian Federation at the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation adopted a decision "On the Development of the Land Reclamation Complex of the Russian Federation" and said that now we are together: science, production, and agriculture of the country will carry it out.
After the end of the field session of the Land Reclamation Section, a visit to the memorial complex dedicated to the peaceful citizens of the Soviet Union who were victims of the Nazi genocide in the village of Zaytsevo, Gatchina District, and the laying of flowers at the monument's base were organized.
