The Department of Agrochemistry and Soil Science was established in 2001 on the basis of the Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, to provide high-qualified specialists with a new formation of the western region of Ukraine, and in the future also the neighboring countries of Europe – Poland, Hungary, Moldova, Czech Republic, Russia, Belarus.
The head of the department was invited from the National University “Lviv Polytechnic”, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, Professor Miroslav Dmytrovych Voloshchuk.
The expediency of the establishment of the Department of Agrochemistry and Soil Science was dictated by urgent tasks, namely: lack of specialists in soil fertility restoration, lack of alternative energy saving systems for adaptive ecological farming for farms and cooperative farms, lack of geoinformation monitoring systems for quantitative and qualitative soil fertility indices; the need to develop models of farming systems for various forms of land ownership; developing a strategy (concept) for optimizing the structure of land and their protection; restructuring of land plots, property shares and agricultural enterprises during the reform of land relations; the restoration of natural ecosystems to create ecologically stable agro-landscapes.
In 2001, the first set of students was conducted on the specialty “Agrochemistry and soil science”, since 2005 the Department of Agrochemistry and Soil Science is part of the structure of the Institute of Natural Sciences of the State Pedagogical University “Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University”.
The Department of Agrochemistry and Soil Science is employed by: Head of the Department, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, Professor M.D. Voloshchuk; Candidates of Agricultural Sciences, Associate Professors: MM Klimchuk, U.M. Karbivska, P.M. Dmitryk, O.Yu. Turak; Teachers: O.D. Turak, Y.Y.Grigoriv.
For the educational process, reading of individual professional disciplines involved doctors of sciences, professors, academics and leading scientists of higher educational institutions of Ukraine.
The educational process, laboratory, practical, seminar classes are carried out in modern equipped auditoriums, offices, as well as a certified laboratory of physics and chemistry of soil (Certificate of Attestation No. IF 549 dated December 30, 2011). In 2010, the Department passed the accreditation of the Master’s Degree Program, where the specialties “Soil Protection”, “Agrohimservice”, “Soil Monitoring and Restoration of Their Fertility” were opened.
At the Department of Agrochemistry and Soil Science, since its inception, research is being carried out in the following areas:
• Improvement of measures to prevent the negative impact of extreme crisis situations on the natural resource potential of agroecosystems of the Carpathian region of Ukraine;
• formation of agrobiocenoses on eroded lands removed from intensive cultivation under natural forage lands (for conservation) in the western region of Ukraine;
• scientific foundations and modern systems of organization of forage production on drained lands of the Carpathian region.
The staff of the department perform NTP “Agroecology”, “Agriculture”, “Development of land reclamation areas”. The bulk of scientific research is carried out on stationary pre-harvest fields of the Precarpathian State Agricultural Experimental Station of the Institute of Agriculture of the Carpathian Region of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the basic farms of the region, Botanical Garden of the State Pedagogical University “Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University”.
Scientific work at the department is performed by students from the second year of study, who actively participate in all-Ukrainian and international conferences, take prize-winning places, exchange experience and their scientific achievements.
In order to prepare highly qualified specialists at the department there is a permanent and correspondence post-graduate course. During 2003-2018, 35 people studied in postgraduate studies, including on the day form 20 and 15 correspondence. Of these, 10 successfully defended their Ph.D. theses, in particular, Dmitry P.M. (Kamyanets-Podilsky Agrarian University), Lis N.M., Orlovsky RM and Vychavets V.Ya. (National University of Bioresources and Natural Resources of Ukraine (Kyiv)), Turak O.Yu. (Institute of Agriculture of the NAASU), Yaroslav Y. Grigoriv (Institute of Agriculture of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine).
Not only highly skilled graduates of the department, but also from other scientific and production organizations, the Precarpathian state agricultural research station of the Institute of Agriculture of the Carpathian region of Ukraine, Ivano-Frankivsk Agrarian College, Ivano-Frankivsk Research and Design Institute of Land Management, the State Design Project are studying in the graduate school. -technological center for the protection of soil fertility and the quality of the “Oblderroduktivnost” products, leading specialists of the region.
The theme of the dissertation is related to the research programs of the NAASU, agro-industrial complex of the Western region of Ukraine. Programs, methods of dissertation research are considered and approved at the meetings of the department, scientists of the councils of the Institute of Natural Sciences of the State Pedagogical University “Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University”.
During the period of the department, its employees published more than 537 scientific works, including published by the press and co-authors of three international monographs.
The employees of the department are members of special councils for the defense of candidate and doctoral dissertations.
The Department of Agrochemistry and Soil Science carries out scientific cooperation with a number of educational, educational and production institutions of Ukraine and abroad. Among them, the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv), Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, V. Dokuchaev Kharkiv National Agrarian University, Ukrainian National Center for Soil Fertility; Collaborates with the Institute of Soil Science and Agrochemistry named after O. Sokolovsky (Kharkiv), Institute of Agriculture, Hydrotechnics and Melioration, Agroecology and Biotechnology (Kyiv) NAANU.
The department conducts scientific collaboration with international scientific and educational institutions: the Wroclaw Natural Science University (Poland) and the Dimo (Moldova, Chisinau) Institute of Agriculture and Soil Protection from the erosion Institute of Agriculture and Soil Science (Kursk, Russia), and the Scientific and Research Institute of Agrochemistry and Soil Science named after Dimo ), The Novgorod State Agricultural Academy (Russia, Veliky Novgorod), the Institute of Soil Science and Land Reclamation (Czech Republic, Prague), the Institute of Environmental Ecology (Romania, Yassi).
The perspective directions of the department development are:
• forecasting of extreme crisis ecological situations and development of a system of measures for their prevention;
• substantiation of the optimization of the structure of agricultural landscapes and the development of adaptive ecologically safe land use systems that ensure reproduction of fertility and land conservation;
• restoration of fertility of technogenically-destroyed lands (ash discharges of Burshtyn CHPP, Dombrowski quarry);
• eco-safe technologies for the creation and use of new forms of extraction made from non-traditional materials that provide soil fertility and environmental protection of the environment.
In 2010, the Department passed the accreditation of the Master’s Degree Program, where the specialties “Soil Protection”, “Agrohimservice”, “Soil Monitoring and Restoration of Their Fertility” were opened.
The perspective directions of the department development are: • forecasting of extreme crisis ecological situations and development of a system of measures for their prevention; • substantiation of the optimization of the structure of agricultural landscapes and the development of adaptive ecologically safe land use systems that ensure reproduction of fertility and land conservation; • restoration of fertility of technogenically-destroyed lands (ash discharges of Burshtyn CHPP, Dombrovsky quarry); • Eco-safe technologies for the creation and use of new forms of fertilizers made from non-traditional materials that provide soil fertility and environmental protection of the environment.