Yurii Lysak received the honorary award “Agronomist of the Year”
06. 09. 24
Yurii Lysak, Chief Agronomist of the Agro-Region Group of Companies, received the honorary award “Agronomist of the Year”.
He became one of the top 100 agronomists in Ukraine to receive this award for professionalism, dedicated work, the implementation of modern technologies, and the preservation of the fertility of Ukrainian soil.
The rating award was established by the editorial team of The Ukrainian Farmer magazine.
After graduating with honors from the Uman Agricultural Academy (now the University of Horticulture), Yurii Lysak worked as an agronomist in various companies, taught at the Illintsi Agricultural College, and since 2016 has held the position of Chief Agronomist at Agro-Region Group of Companies. Currently, he oversees three clusters in Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Zhytomyr regions, covering a total of 40,000 hectares.
Previously, all the company’s land was cultivated using traditional plowing. Over 50% of the soils managed by Agro-Region are sandy, which posed a challenge for Mr. Yurii, as he needed to figure out how to work with them effectively. He initiated the shift away from plowing on most of the land and introduced the strip-till technology and, in some cases, deep loosening, while also implementing a differentiated approach to each field.
The company’s land bank is highly diverse: within one field, there can be up to eight different soil types, making a standard approach ineffective. As a result, they began a new phase of soil analysis, identified productivity zones, developed task maps, and implemented variable-rate fertilization and seeding. These measures have yielded results. While the previous maximum corn yield was 7-8 tons per hectare, it is now 11 tons per hectare. Additionally, rapeseed was introduced into the crop rotation, yielding 3.5-4 tons per hectare on poor soils. Most importantly, the economic efficiency of the company has significantly increased.
“I’m convinced that in agronomy, there can’t be one-size-fits-all solutions. It’s a creative profession, and agronomists should be given the freedom to experiment, so they can take initiative instead of simply following a prescribed technology. To do this, it’s crucial to build a team of professionals where there is mutual trust. To implement this approach, we created an agricultural school and train young specialists every year. This has formed 70% of our team,” says Yurii Lysak.
We congratulate our colleague and wish him continued success!
