Ambassador of Equatorial Guinea Visits PhosAgro Educational Centre at Skryabin Academy
Moscow – Luciano Nkogo Ndong Ayekaba, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, visited the PhosAgro educational centre at the K. I. Skryabin Moscow State Academy of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology, where he learned about the Company’s projects for training agricultural workers.
PhosAgro’s specialized educational centre, which opened at Skryabin Academy in 2023, is a complex of multifunctional classrooms equipped with state-of-the-art computers and multimedia tools, educational materials, visual aids, samples of fertilizers and feed additives for livestock, lounges and a library. The centre also houses a phytolaboratory where students can conduct meaningful educational experiments and engage in scientific research. To date, 21 of these centres have been opened at Russian universities as part of a programme to develop agricultural education.
Skryabin Academy’s Rector, Sergey Pozyabin, gave Ambassador Ndong Ayekaba a tour of an exhibition dedicated to the Academy’s scientific achievements. In addition, he shared details about how young veterinarians and biotechnologists are being trained to develop animal feed for the livestock industry, a programme that students take part in at the PhosAgro educational centre.
“Today, Russian education in general, and especially at the Moscow State Academy of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology, is advanced and dynamic,” said Rector Pozyabin. “We place special emphasis on providing high-quality training for foreign students. The high level of teaching, supportive atmosphere and advanced infrastructure at the Academy attract young people from all over the world. I would like to express my gratitude to our key industrial partner, PhosAgro, which plays an active role in training highly qualified specialists for the agricultural sector. We are grateful to the fertilizer industry’s standard bearer for its foresight: by establishing advanced educational centres, they are providing students with the latest knowledge and skills. This is a substantial investment in building strategic human resources capacity for the agricultural sector and, in fact, in the future of our country.”
Siroj Loikov, First Deputy CEO of PhosAgro, spoke about the Company’s activities in Africa as well as international humanitarian projects that the Company is implementing together with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UNESCO and IUPAC to support farmers and young scientists from African countries: “PhosAgro is the largest Russian supplier of fertilizers to African countries, accounting for 40% of total exports. In 2024, we increased our shipments of mineral fertilizers to Africa by a third. Our total fertilizer exports to Africa in 2024 exceeded 730 thousand tonnes, a 33% increase from 2023 (548 thousand tonnes). At the same time, it is impossible to create a sustainable economy in Africa without local personnel. Only they can drive the transition to a sustainable development model, and our humanitarian mission is aimed at supporting them.”
One of the Company’s key humanitarian projects is Green Chemistry for Life, a joint programme in partnership with UNESCO and IUPAC that awards grants each year to young scientists for research in the fields of sustainable agriculture and environmental protection. Over the programme’s eight rounds, 55 researchers from all over the world have received support. More than a quarter of the grants awarded over the years by the programme’s international jury have gone to applicants from Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Tunisia and Zimbabwe. Furthermore, over 200 young African scientists have taken part in the PhosAgro–IUPAC Summer Schools on Green Chemistry.
In partnership with the FAO, PhosAgro is training African farmers to use their land more effectively and to protect their soils against degradation. Through the Soil Doctors programme, farmers from 20 African countries have received more than 11,000 soil kits: diagnostic toolkits that enable farmers to independently assess the condition of their fields and determine the nutrients that are needed to maximise crop yields.
PhosAgro was also an official partner for the launch of the AFRILAB regional network of soil laboratories. The network currently includes 220 laboratories, across 54 countries, that assess the quality and safety of fertilizers and monitor soil conditions. The Company is also working hard to ensure that farmers have access to information on sustainable farming practices. A key digital educational project in this area is PhosAgro’s Pro Agro Lectorium platform. Nearly 60 leading academics and practitioners from around the world, including 9 speakers from African countries, have recorded more than 420 lectures on agricultural science and agrochemistry, crop and livestock farming, innovation and digitalization in agriculture, economics and responsible agriculture. Over the past year, it has become a true international educational hub for advanced agricultural technologies. Pro Agro Lectorium has been recognized as the official educational platform of the Agribusiness Working Group of the BRICS Business Council and won a BRICS Solutions Award.
Ambassador Ndong Ayekaba thanked the management of PhosAgro and the Skryabin Academy for the opportunity to learn about the latest advancements in the field of veterinary medicine and biotechnology: “In Equatorial Guinea today, a great deal of attention is being paid to food production, and PhosAgro’s environmentally friendly mineral fertilizers could become one of the key components of this process. It should be noted that modern agriculture is becoming increasingly high-tech, and the effective use of fertilizers is impossible without the appropriate knowledge. In this context, PhosAgro’s educational projects at specialized universities, including the Pro Agro Lectorium digital educational programme, are of particular interest. I am convinced that the promotion of knowledge and technologies developed by PhosAgro in the field of advanced agriculture, as well as the implementation of educational programmes for farmers, students and university professors in my country, will help improve agricultural efficiency.”
PhosAgro’s specialized educational centre, which opened at Skryabin Academy in 2023, is a complex of multifunctional classrooms equipped with state-of-the-art computers and multimedia tools, educational materials, visual aids, samples of fertilizers and feed additives for livestock, lounges and a library. The centre also houses a phytolaboratory where students can conduct meaningful educational experiments and engage in scientific research. To date, 21 of these centres have been opened at Russian universities as part of a programme to develop agricultural education.
Skryabin Academy’s Rector, Sergey Pozyabin, gave Ambassador Ndong Ayekaba a tour of an exhibition dedicated to the Academy’s scientific achievements. In addition, he shared details about how young veterinarians and biotechnologists are being trained to develop animal feed for the livestock industry, a programme that students take part in at the PhosAgro educational centre.
“Today, Russian education in general, and especially at the Moscow State Academy of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology, is advanced and dynamic,” said Rector Pozyabin. “We place special emphasis on providing high-quality training for foreign students. The high level of teaching, supportive atmosphere and advanced infrastructure at the Academy attract young people from all over the world. I would like to express my gratitude to our key industrial partner, PhosAgro, which plays an active role in training highly qualified specialists for the agricultural sector. We are grateful to the fertilizer industry’s standard bearer for its foresight: by establishing advanced educational centres, they are providing students with the latest knowledge and skills. This is a substantial investment in building strategic human resources capacity for the agricultural sector and, in fact, in the future of our country.”
Siroj Loikov, First Deputy CEO of PhosAgro, spoke about the Company’s activities in Africa as well as international humanitarian projects that the Company is implementing together with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UNESCO and IUPAC to support farmers and young scientists from African countries: “PhosAgro is the largest Russian supplier of fertilizers to African countries, accounting for 40% of total exports. In 2024, we increased our shipments of mineral fertilizers to Africa by a third. Our total fertilizer exports to Africa in 2024 exceeded 730 thousand tonnes, a 33% increase from 2023 (548 thousand tonnes). At the same time, it is impossible to create a sustainable economy in Africa without local personnel. Only they can drive the transition to a sustainable development model, and our humanitarian mission is aimed at supporting them.”
One of the Company’s key humanitarian projects is Green Chemistry for Life, a joint programme in partnership with UNESCO and IUPAC that awards grants each year to young scientists for research in the fields of sustainable agriculture and environmental protection. Over the programme’s eight rounds, 55 researchers from all over the world have received support. More than a quarter of the grants awarded over the years by the programme’s international jury have gone to applicants from Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Tunisia and Zimbabwe. Furthermore, over 200 young African scientists have taken part in the PhosAgro–IUPAC Summer Schools on Green Chemistry.
In partnership with the FAO, PhosAgro is training African farmers to use their land more effectively and to protect their soils against degradation. Through the Soil Doctors programme, farmers from 20 African countries have received more than 11,000 soil kits: diagnostic toolkits that enable farmers to independently assess the condition of their fields and determine the nutrients that are needed to maximise crop yields.
PhosAgro was also an official partner for the launch of the AFRILAB regional network of soil laboratories. The network currently includes 220 laboratories, across 54 countries, that assess the quality and safety of fertilizers and monitor soil conditions. The Company is also working hard to ensure that farmers have access to information on sustainable farming practices. A key digital educational project in this area is PhosAgro’s Pro Agro Lectorium platform. Nearly 60 leading academics and practitioners from around the world, including 9 speakers from African countries, have recorded more than 420 lectures on agricultural science and agrochemistry, crop and livestock farming, innovation and digitalization in agriculture, economics and responsible agriculture. Over the past year, it has become a true international educational hub for advanced agricultural technologies. Pro Agro Lectorium has been recognized as the official educational platform of the Agribusiness Working Group of the BRICS Business Council and won a BRICS Solutions Award.
Ambassador Ndong Ayekaba thanked the management of PhosAgro and the Skryabin Academy for the opportunity to learn about the latest advancements in the field of veterinary medicine and biotechnology: “In Equatorial Guinea today, a great deal of attention is being paid to food production, and PhosAgro’s environmentally friendly mineral fertilizers could become one of the key components of this process. It should be noted that modern agriculture is becoming increasingly high-tech, and the effective use of fertilizers is impossible without the appropriate knowledge. In this context, PhosAgro’s educational projects at specialized universities, including the Pro Agro Lectorium digital educational programme, are of particular interest. I am convinced that the promotion of knowledge and technologies developed by PhosAgro in the field of advanced agriculture, as well as the implementation of educational programmes for farmers, students and university professors in my country, will help improve agricultural efficiency.”