Arctic potential: Meat, herbs and potatoes

The climate in the north is more predictable than in the south, which makes growing herbs and livestock there more promising than in Russia's climatically unstable central and southern regions, Moscow State University geography department senior researcher Yury Golubchikov, said.

In an interview with RIA Novosti, Golubchikov, PhD in Geography, spoke about factors affecting the crop yield, Andean potato tubers, and Nikolai Vavilov’s polar agriculture ideas.

Light is key

Plant growth is based on four major factors – warmth, moisture, light and soil productivity. Beyond the polar circle, a polar day lasts for six months, meaning there is no shortage of sunlight. Also, due to the low position of the sun, the light in polar regions is dispersed and enriched with infrared and ultraviolet rays, which makes it more easily “digestible” for plants.   

      
“From May to July, polar regions get about twice as much sunlight as equatorial countries during the same period,” Golubchikov said. Additionally, the total hours of daylight in polar regions far exceed daylight hours in temperate zones.    

The warmth is ensured by the continental climate, where high temperatures occur during periods when plants actively grow.

“In Yakutia or Dudinka, for example, people suffer more from the summer heat than from the cold weather,” Golubchikov said.

Northern soils have sufficient amounts of moisture, and their productivity can be enhanced by manure, which will also neutralize the cold.   

“The idea of polar agriculture was endorsed by prominent plant geneticist Nikolai Vavilov, who believed there are no geographic or climatic limits for agricultural production,” he said.   
Along Siberian rivers

Agricultural production is possible throughout the polar and circumpolar regions, but the bottomlands of Siberian rivers, including the Northern Dvina, Pechora, Ob, and Lena rivers, should be first in line when it comes to cultivation, he said.

“The best location for farmlands is several dozen kilometers away from the Arctic Ocean with its freezing winds,” Golubchikov said. “The Northern Dvina can be used along its entire course, whereas the Lena will be better used at its middle.”

Today, the northern tundra is mostly used for deer farming as opposed to forage cultivation, he said. However, animal breeding has been virtually absent in the north over the past half century, the scientist stressed.  

“There could have been as many strains of deer as cows and horses, but there are only a few of them now,” Golubchikov said.

The renowned Khargin strain, which mostly feeds on grass as opposed to lichen, has been bred in Chukotka, he added.

“There is also the massive and sturdy Karagas deer strain, which has hardly been studied and is nearly extinct,” Golubchikov said.  

 
Muskoxen and potatoes

“Scientists have successfully reproduced populations of northern ungulates. They have been working with musk-oxen populations on Wrangel Island and Taimyr Peninsula,” Golubchikov said.
The famous Kholmogorskaya cow strain has been bred in the north, and Yakutia is famous for its cold-resistant and low maintenance cow strain. However, due to a lack of breeding and genetic work, it is on the verge of extinction.   

“In Yakutia, they have also bred the hardy Verkhoyansk and Central Kalmyk horse strains, which look somewhat similar to the now extinct wild Chersky horse,” Golubchikov said.

 
He believes that the free pasturing of wild herds in open spaces in the north, which requires limited human resources, could turn the polar regions into major meat production centers.   

In addition to animal breeding, Golubchikov said cold-resistant potato varieties, among other widely used plants, can be cultivated in the northern regions.

“Let’s take potatoes, for example,” he said. “European breeding was based on two to three varieties borrowed from the Indians of Chiloe Island off the coast of southern Chile. Vavilov brought 18 new varieties of potatoes from the Andes, and they produced good tubers specifically in the Far North. The Akaule variety could withstand freezing temperatures of up to minus eight degrees.”

In the 1920s and 1930s, researchers demonstrated that highland plants adjust well to the conditions of the north. Furthermore, the higher the area where the plants are originally picked, the faster they will grow in the north.

“I would like to emphasize that between the 15th and 19th centuries, people in the Pechora region used locally produced bread and flax,” Golubchikov said. “They produced stable yields of rye even in the coldest years when ice in the Pechora River would not even melt, as happened in 1836. I believe that not only can we restore independent food production in the northern regions, but we can also make them reliable exporters of meat and diary products,” he said.