Professor A.Ye. Zaikevych — one of the founders of domestic agricultural research affairs, famous scientist-agrarian, plant physiologist

Abstract

Goal. To reveal the main milestones of life and creative path, to summarize the most important scientific achievements of the talented scientist, agrarian, one of the organizers and methodologists of the domestic agricultural research business A.Ye. Zaikevych. Methods. General scientific — analysis, synthesis, classification; historical — problem-chronological, comparative-historical, retrospective, and biographical. Results. It is proved that A.Ye. Zaikevych contributed to the formation of the Kharkiv Breeding, Ivanivka Research Selection, Verkhnedniprovsk, Romaniv, Verkhniats, Uladiv Agricultural Research Stations, as well as the Lubny Research Station for Medicinal Plant Culture, organized the first network of research fields in Ukraine. For the first time in the history of branch research, he worked out an effective complementary mechanism for coordinating the organizational complex of research. He laid the foundations of a full-fledged methodology of research or conducting a field experiment. Conclusions. It is determined that A.Ye. Zaikevych was one of the first domestic scientists to scientifically study the culture of sugar beets and used the polarimetric method to determine their sugar content. He has made significant achievements in fertilizing various types of soils. The scientist substantiated the directions of improvement of domestic wheat varieties and developed a method for assessing their botanical characteristics, root system, and development of underground organs and tillering against the background of certain natural factors and chemical composition of cultivated products. The scientist conducted special experiments on the acclimatization of American lucerne and created a new variety of lucerne — Grimm.