Appendix

RESOLUTION

of the Meeting on the Integrated Use of Peat in Agriculture in Western Siberia, held in the city of Tomsk on December 7–9, 1965

The meeting notes the timeliness and importance of the problem raised and approves the initiative of the Tomsk regional organizations and research institutions in convening it. The significance of the meeting extends beyond the limits of Tomsk Oblast and is of interest on the scale of all Western Siberia.

A positive feature is the participation in the work of the meeting, alongside West Siberian educational institutions, of leading specialists from sectoral research organizations on peat, as well as of central institutions and agencies: the Council for the Study of Productive Forces under Gosplan of the USSR, the Ministry of Geology of the RSFSR, the West Siberian Planning Commission, the Institute VNIIT (Minsk), VNIITP (Leningrad), the institute “Giprotorfrazvedka” (Moscow) and its Gorky branch, the Institute of Geography of the USSR Academy of Sciences, TsTBOS, the Kalinin Polytechnic Institute, the Institute of Forest and Timber of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and the Dnepropetrovsk Agricultural Institute.

On the basis of the reports and statements heard, the meeting notes:

1) At present, on the territory of the West Siberian Lowland, on the basis of unique natural riches (especially oil and gas), one of the largest national-economic complexes of our country is being formed.

At the same time, the West Siberian Lowland is the largest peat region, where more than 32 million hectares of peat deposits are concentrated, with peat reserves exceeding 95 billion tons, which amounts to about 60% of all-Union and 40% of world resources.

2) The potential value of the peat raw-material resources and peat areas of Western Siberia and, in particular, of Tomsk Oblast creates the possibility of using them not only on a large scale, but also in various directions.

Such integrated development of them is dictated by the general task of developing productive forces here. The present state of peat-covered and waterlogged territories (their flooding and impassability), however, creates a significant obstacle to the implementation of this problem.

3) One of the most important directions for the use of peat deposits of Western Siberia is their integrated development for agriculture, with the organization of peat extraction for fertilizer, subs—

litter and fodder materials, with the simultaneous development of peat areas for vegetable, fodder, and grain crops. This will contribute to the fullest satisfaction of the needs of the prospective industrial population for agricultural products.

4) The work begun in recent years by the problem laboratories on peat of the Tomsk Polytechnic and Novosibirsk Agricultural Institutes, jointly with the institute “Giprotorfrazvedka” of the Ministry of Geology of the RSFSR, on studying possible directions for the use of peat under the conditions of Western Siberia, plays a positive role in the practical organization of peat extraction and application in agriculture in Tomsk and other oblasts of Western Siberia.

Peat fertilizer is being used at the “Takhtamyshevskii” and “Tomskii” state farms; work has been expanded on the extraction of peat fertilizers at the Tagan peat bog by the mechanized detachments of “Selkhoztekhnika”; by the forces of the machine-reclamation station of the Water Management Department of the Tomsk Oblast Executive Committee, the Shegaro-Iksinskoe deposit has been drained over an area of 1,032 ha for sowing perennial grasses, and drainage work is being carried out at the Chaginskoe peat deposit; projects are being developed for draining the peat massif “Verkhnii Lug” in Tomsk Oblast. Fourteen machine-reclamation stations have been created in Tyumen Oblast, which are carrying out drainage work on 33 sites with an area of 70 thousand ha.

The problem laboratories of the Novosibirsk Agricultural Institute and the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute are studying the effectiveness of the granular peat–mineral–bacterial fertilizers they have developed and are expanding work on extracting humic substances from peat for use as plant-growth stimulants and on studying the microcomponents of peat composition.

Tomsk University is conducting work on bog cultivation.

At the Tomsk Pedagogical Institute, at the Tara Experimental Station, and at the Omsk and Narym breeding stations, experiments with peat fertilizers and their production testing are continuing.

In the last two years a number of scientific works have been published on questions of applying peat fertilizers and developing peat bogs under the conditions of Tomsk Oblast and other districts of Western Siberia.

The achievements of scientific institutions and the practice of state farms and suburban farms of Tomsk Oblast, as well as the experience of other oblasts and republics, the results of which have been reported at the present meeting, make it possible to take steps toward a broader use of peat in agriculture in Tomsk Oblast and other oblasts of Western Siberia and, at the same time, to develop further scientific-research work on solving the entire complex of problems connected with the study and development of the peat resources of the West Siberian Lowland.

In connection with this, the meeting resolves:

1. To recommend to the oblast organizations of Tomsk Oblast:

a) to take measures to disseminate the experience of the “Takhtamyshevskii” and “Tomskii” state farms in the extraction and application of peat fertilizers and to ensure the integrated development of peat bogs for the extraction of peat fertilizers, peat litter, and the cultivation of vegetable and fodder crops, first of all in the Chaia, Aleksandrovskoe, Kargasok, and Bakchar districts, and in the suburban zones of the cities of Tomsk, Kolpashevo, and Asino, which are the most promising from the point of view of industrial development;

b) to assign the work of preparing and developing peat bogs and extracting peat for fertilizer and litter to the machine-reclamation stations of the Administration of Reclamation and Water Management and to the mechanized detachments of “Selkhoztekhnika,” providing for an increase by 1970 in the extraction

peat for fertilizer to 1 million tons per year, peat bedding to 0.5 million tons per year, and drainage and agricultural development of peat areas to 57 thousand hectares;

Recommend, in this connection, that the oblast organizations apply to the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR with a petition for the allocation of the appropriate machinery and for the additional organization of MMS, especially in the northern districts of the oblast;

c) request that the Ministry of Geology of the RSFSR ensure the further development of geological exploration work for peat in the areas of Western Siberia most promising for industrial development, providing, in particular, for the identification and detailed exploration in 1966–1968 of priority peat deposits in the Chainsky, Aleksandrovsky, Kargasoksky, and Bakcharsky districts and the natural zones of the cities of Tomsk, Kolpashevo, and Asino, with the preparation of projects for them ensuring peat extraction for fertilizer, bedding, and the agricultural development of peat areas in the volumes recommended above.

1. Approve the subject matter of the problem laboratories on peat of the Tomsk Polytechnic and Novosibirsk Agricultural Institutes, and consider it extremely necessary to ensure the further development of their work connected with the problem of studying and developing the resources of the West Siberian Lowland. For these purposes:

a) request that the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education fully staff, in the approved numbers, the positions authorized for the laboratory, in the amount of 57 units, instead of the 17 units that have actually been allocated to it at present;

b) request that the Tomsk Oblast Executive Committee ensure, in 1966, the construction of experimental installations for the production of peat-mineral granulated fertilizers and sodium humates, as well as for the production of peat bedding;

c) request that the Novosibirsk Geological Administration, beginning in 1967, increase the financing of contract work for the problem laboratories connected with the study of the most important directions for the integrated use of peat resources of the West Siberian Lowland for industrial-energy, chemical-metallurgical, agricultural, and other purposes.

1. Note the positive work of the Tomsk Pedagogical Institute and Tomsk State University in the field of biochemical and microbiological studies of peat and the integrated development of peatlands, and request that the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education of the RSFSR and the Ministry of Education allocate funds and equipment for the further development of this work.

2. Approve the subject matter of the institute “Giprotorfrazvedka” and its Gorky branch, connected with work in Western Siberia, and draw special attention to the importance of solving the following main questions:

a) the study of the hydrogeological and hydrological conditions of the waterlogged territory of the West Siberian Lowland and the development of ways for its drainage and development;

b) the investigation of the most economical and integrated directions for the use of the peat resources of Western Siberia on a large scale in general connection with the development of the productive forces of this region;

c) the geological-economic assessment of the most promising peat bases of the West Siberian Lowland, and those of first priority for development;

d) the development of the most progressive methods of preliminary and detailed exploration of large peat massifs of the West Siberian Lowland;

lowland, with the use of mechanization and aerial photography, in order to cover as quickly as possible, by these surveys, the peat regions most promising for industrial development.

1. To recognize the great scientific and practical importance, for solving the problem of the comprehensive development of the peat resources of the West Siberian Lowland, of the work being carried out by the Institute of Geography of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Geography of Siberia and the Far East, Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, on the comprehensive study of the natural conditions of the West Siberian Lowland and its natural resources. To recommend that these studies be intensified, with greater attention being paid to attracting peat resources to the solution of the general problem of developing agriculture and the industrial-energy sectors in the areas of priority economic development of Western Siberia.

2. To request VNIIT (Minsk), VNIITP (Leningrad), TsTBOS, the Institute of Forest and Wood of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and the Dnepropetrovsk Agricultural Institute to include in the thematic plans of their work for 1966–70 topics connected with resolving questions of the comprehensive development of the peat resources of the West Siberian Lowland and, in particular, of Tomsk Oblast, arising from the reports of these institutes heard and approved by the present meeting.

3. To recommend that SibNIISkhoz, experimental and breeding stations, and oblast agrochemical laboratories in Western Siberia include in their work plans experiments on studying the effectiveness of peat fertilizers in crop rotations with various crops on different soils, and test humic preparations under the conditions of Western Siberia as plant-growth stimulants. In addition, to carry out a production verification of the effectiveness of TMAU under the conditions of Western Siberia according to the formulations of VNIIT (Minsk) and VNIITP (Leningrad), and to use the recommendations of the VNIIT institute on the fundamental improvement of light soils.

4. To recommend that the variety-testing inspectorates in Tomsk, Omsk, and Novosibirsk use peat fertilizers in their practical work in order to create high agricultural backgrounds for variety testing on variety plots in the northern districts of their oblasts.

5. To recognize the paramount importance, within the general problem of developing the productive forces of Western Siberia, of ensuring the drainage of peat-clogged and waterlogged territories.

In this connection, to deem it necessary to request the Council for the Study of Productive Forces under Gosplan of the USSR to petition the Council of Ministers of the USSR to instruct Gidroproekt to develop a general scheme for the drainage of the most promising peat-clogged and waterlogged regions of Western Siberia for industrial development, taking into account the large scale of these works and the need to employ modern, highly productive technical means in carrying them out.

1. Taking into account that the development of the West Siberian national-economic complex is connected with a significant growth of the population and with the need to create its own food base in the areas of priority industrial construction, the fulfillment of this large and important task should be subordinated to all scientific, design-and-survey, and other work connected with determining the most rational comprehensive agricultural use of the largest reserves of peat and the agricultural development of peat-bearing fertile lands.

2. In connection with the increasing role of peat resources and the ways of their comprehensive development in the general problem of developing the productive forces of the West Siberian Lowland, to recognize as urgent the neces-

the possibility of creating a unified scientific center for resolving the entire complex of questions connected with drainage and the most rational development of the peat resources of Western Siberia for industrial-energy, agricultural, and other purposes.

As such a scientific center, it would be advisable to create, on the basis of the peat problem laboratory of the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute, a specialized research institute, or to organize a branch of one of the existing peat research institutes for the study and comprehensive development of the peat resources of the West Siberian Lowland.

To recommend that the regional organizations, jointly with the Council for the Study of Productive Forces under Gosplan of the USSR, the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the Ministry of Geology of the RSFSR, and other interested organizations, further work out this question and petition the State Committee of the Council of Ministers of the USSR for Science and Technology accordingly.

1. To request the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education to organize, beginning with the 1966–1967 academic year, the training of peat specialists at the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute for solving the problem of the comprehensive development of the peat resources of Western Siberia.

2. To recommend that West Siberian organizations convene in 1967 a broader conference on the problem of the comprehensive use of the peat resources of Western Siberia in agriculture, linking it with the general tasks of developing the productive forces of this region.

3. Taking into account the urgency and scientific as well as practical importance of the questions considered at this conference, to request the Tomsk Regional Executive Committee, the rectorate of the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute, and the Tomsk branch of the All-Union Society of Soil Scientists to publish the proceedings of the conference on the comprehensive use of peat in the agriculture of Western Siberia.