Multi-year results of collaboration diverse practical and research work between VNIISSOK and Belarusian Agricultural Academy are presented in the article. Over 25 years of collaboration work has resulted in 15 cultivars have been released and included into in State Register of Breeding Achievements of Russian Federation and Republic of Belarus. Joint cooperation research keeps on going to perform study of ecological cultivar trials and to realize breeding program for crop improvement and to show the latest achievement in the frame of annual practical and research day-long field forum. The outcomes of the last forum are also presented.

The article presents the author's method for estimation of the level of food self-sufficiency for the main types of food products in the regions of Republic of Tatarstan. The proposed method is based on the use of analytical methods and mathematical comparative analysis to compose a final rating. The proposed method can be used in the system of regional management of agro-industrial complex on the federal and local level. Relevance. The relevance of this work is caused by on the one hand a hardening of foreign policy that may negatively impact on national food security, and on the other hand the state crisis of the domestic agricultural sector. All this requires the development of new approaches to regional agribusiness management. Goal. To develop a methodology is used to assess the level of food self-sufficiency. To rate the level of self-sufficiency in main types of foodstuff in regions of Republic of Tatarstan. Materials and Methods. Statistical data of the results of the AIC of the Republic of Tatarstan for 2016 was used for the study. Analytical methods, including mathematical analysis and comparison were used. Results. Based on the analysis of the present situation for ensuring of food security in Russia it was shown that now it is necessary to develop effective indicators identifying the level of self-sufficiency in basic food regions. It was also revealed that there are no such indicators in system of regional agrarian and industrial complex at present time. As a result of analysis existing approaches the author's method of rating the level of self-sufficiency of regions was offered. This method was adopted on the example of the Republic of Tatarstan. Conclusions. The proposed method of rating estimation of self-sufficiency for basic foodstuffs can be used in the regional agroindustrial complex management system at the federal and local level. It can be used to rank areas in terms of their self-sufficiency for basic foodstuffs. This allows focusing on the improvement of backward non-advanced areas in agroindustry and making appropriate management decisions. The final rating value was 0.88 that was obtained from the analysis of the situation in the Republic of Tatarstan showing that the situation in matters of self-sufficiency for basic foodstuffs in general was good. However, there are reserves, as the maximum possible value of the rating may be 1. In the application of the proposed methodology for the assessment of the situation in various regions of the country, now it is possible to compare and evaluate the situation to take appropriate decisions for the development of management.

One of directions of radish breeding is creation of varieties with an unusual combination of color and form of a root crop. The article presents the results of the breeding work with radish and introduces description of 7 new radish varieties.

The breeding program for daikon in Crimea was carried out according to the following plan: the seed sowing in the third decade of July, and root selection for economically valuable traits after 58-70 days; storage during the winter; planting in the short warm periods of February, under temporary tunnel coverage for parental lines used for hybridization; seed production in second decade of July; seed sowing in third decade of July; assessment of progenies in 58-70 days. The annual cycle was repeated until the constant lines were obtained. As result of that, the middle-maturing variety was developed, the periods from shoots to root formation, to root harvesting, to seed maturation were 26 days, 63 days and 90 days, respectively. Variety ‘Solol’ had 3% less of dry matter than standard variety ‘Klyck Slona’ and 10% higher than standard variety ‘Guliver’. The variety ‘Sokol’ had 6-14% more total sugar than both standard varieties. The variety was characterized by high ultrastability and agrochemical stability (86%), average value of yield variation V=13.6%, whereas correlation with sum of effective temperature, r = -0.34 and sum of rainfall, r = +0.58. The yield of daikon root in the variety ‘Sokol’ was 47 t/ha that was 27-31% higher than yield in the standard variety.

The collection of carrot and table beet in Russia has more than 400 varieties and hybrids, included in the State Register of the Russian Federation. In domestic assortment of carrot, the proportion of F1 hybrids is about 50%, beet – about 20%. The most domestic varieties of root crops are characterized by a high level of adaptability with combination of high yield, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. Varieties and hybrids of carrot and beet originated from domestic breeding programs exceed on an average estimation the foreign ones in contents of dry matter, sugars, betanin and carotenoids. They better retain high root qualities during long-term storage. In the breeding of varieties of carrots and table beets, it is important to take into account the suitability to machine harvesting. Varieties with erect leaf rosette and solid leaf attaching to the root head are better adapted to mechanized harvesting. The use of industrial technologies in the production of beet root in large amounts depends on the availability of monogerm varieties that gave mechanized formation of plantations. An important role in solving these problems belongs to the use of the breeding of a diverse initial material. The 250 carrots accessions and 165 table beet accessions were studied in the Pushkin laboratories of VIR (Pushkin, Leningrad region). Evaluation of collection accessions on the complex of valuable traits was carried out. As a result of study, initial breeding material for high yield, early-maturation, high quality of production, bolting, resistance to diseases and pests, suitability for mechanized cultivation has been selected and recommended.

The investigations were conducted on the fields of the Kazakh Research Institute of Potato and Vegetable Growing located on the northern slope of the Zailiysky Alatau, 40 km to the west of Almaty city, under irrigation conditions. The soil of the experimental site is dark chestnut with medium-loamy structure. 37 carrot accessions with different geographic origins were the object of the study in the nursery of the initial breeding forms to evaluate their productivity and field resistance to foliar diseases such as Alternaria, Powdery Mildew. When symptoms expressed maximally 1.5 months before the harvest of carrot, visual assessment of leaf surface damaged by foliar infections was carried out according to the scale of infection, where 0 meant no damaged leaves; 1 meant very light damage (1-10% of leaves); 2 meant light damage (11-25% of leaves); 3 meant medium damage (26-50% of leaves); 4 meant severe damage (over 51% of leaves). The visual observation showed that two breeding accessions CR00655 and CR01253 had immunity to powdery mildew that maximally spread out over other carrot accessions approaching of 100% of damage of leaf surface with the score from 1.8 to 3.8 points, when disease developing from 45.0 to 93.8%. Alternaria spread on carrot plants not very intensively, only 17% of plants in the nursery were hardly attacked at 0.1-0.4 points as scored. The correlation analysis showed the absence of any link between characteristics of productivity and damage parameters caused by foliar diseases at r=0,005-0,225.

Nutritional properties, benefits, economic importance of parsnip varieties ‘Krugliy’ ‘Lutshiy iz Vsekh’, ‘Serdechko’ ‘Beliy Aist, ‘Zhemtchug’ bred at VNIISSOK are discribed in the article. The descriptions of the varieties, methods of their development and technology for variety supporting are also given.

The understanding the nature of trait inheritance in any crops is that determines the quality of results in breeding program. According to reference on previous publication, it is known that phenotypic manifestation of purple root color in radish was caused by regulatory interrelationship mechanisms of genetic control that is difficult to be used directly in breeding program. From literature sources and on the basis of their own research work the authors have proven the practice to maintain the trait in generations, and implementations of development of purple radish breeding accessions have been presented. At first stage of breeding program the selection of initial breeding accessions was carried out, where 14 varieties (red x white) were regarded on the basis of top-crosses to obtain F1 and F2 progenies to be analyzed. Thus, four best combinations from crossing were chosen with 100% of hybridity. Through analysis of hybrids for individual progenies the hybrid population F1 of radish ‘Konfeti’ with different root colors was developed. As result of the individual inbreeding selection on seed plants with pigmented stems and the colored flower rim, the stable breeding accession with purple root was obtained. Thus, in breeding practice in radish it was succeeded to obtain the stably inheriting purple root color in radish accessions, variety ‘Siniiy Iniey’.

The standard for organization for the model technological process in radish seed production through nontransplanting cultivation has been elaborated. The technological requirements to operations necessary for radish seed production process through non-transplanting cultivation, including sowing, plant care, harvesting and post harvesting processing have been established.

On April 18th, a doctor of agricultural sciences, professor, a member  of  Russian Academy  of  Sciences,  academician, Honored Research Worker in Science and Technology, State Laureate of  the  Russian Federation  Government  Prize in Science and Technology, a director of Federal State Budgetary Research Institution ‘All-Russian Research Institute of Vegetable Breeding and Seed Production’, Victor Fedorovich Pivovarov celebrates his 75th birth anniversary.