Preface

Abstract

These proceedings are the output of the annual Russian Conference on Innovations in Agricultural and Rural Development (AgroCON-2019). The conference was held by Kurgan State Agricultural Academy named after T.S. Maltsev in Kurgan, Russia, on April 18-19.Farmland is a growing issue worldwide and in Russia. Despite the outstanding size of the Russian territory, the agricultural lands are of great value in Russia and their development is a strategic objective for the local professional community. Such issues as achieving competitiveness in the global organic food market, enhancing and implementing domestic machinery and farming equipment, as well as ecological well-being in rural areas are to be addressed to implement the potential of the Russian agriculture.The conference was originally supposed to be a forum for the academic discussion of such relevant agriculture-related topics as the development of rural areas, agricultural land reclamation and preservation, biological and chemical research in agroecological applications, state food security and raw materials self-sufficiency. However, due to high involvement of the regional agricultural specialist into these events, the scope of the conference was extended to cover more practical areas of agroengineering, farming, and agribusiness that are of key importance for the rural environment.We are pleased to introduce the conference proceedings containing quality papers selected from the presentations made at the conference. All the papers present significant results and describe original solutions applicable for agriculture. The distinguishing feature of the suggested volume is the integrated approach to agricultural systems, technological advances, economic development, and environment, which is necessary for responding to challenges in conditions of increasing globalization and integration.The scientific committee