Scientists from Southern Federal University (SFedU) presented research and technologies for restoring degraded soils, applying biotechnology and forecasting desertification processes at the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (COP17) in Ulaanbaatar.
The international forum brought together approximately 20,000 participants from 197 countries. Discussions focused on land degradation, drought, sustainable natural resource management and food security. For the first time, the Russian Federation Pavilion was established in the official Blue Zone of the conference, hosting thematic sessions organized by Russian ministries and the UNCCD Interregional Group “Central Asia–Russia”.
One of the main events was the Russian Science Day, organized by the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education. SFedU researchers presented practical solutions to improve soil resilience and restore degraded landscapes.
The delegation of the D. I. Ivanovsky Academy of Biology and Medicine at SFedU presented a series of studies:
Professor Tatiana Minkina, Doctor of Biological Sciences, presented soil bioremediation strategies for an increasingly arid climate based on natural sorbents and decomposer microorganisms;
Professor Olga Biryukova, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, presented an integrated methodology for assessing soil fertility and adaptive landscape farming systems;
Professor Evgenia Prazdnova, Doctor of Biological Sciences, outlined biotechnological solutions using bacterial consortia to support moisture retention and the biotransformation of surface sand layers;
Vishnu Dayal Rajput, PhD, presented the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to forecast desertification processes;
Veronika Boldyreva, PhD in Biological Sciences, shared results on the use of phytoremediation technologies to restore pasture ecosystems;
Inna Zamulina, Senior Researcher at the Center for Circular Biomaterials, presented artificial soil structures made from recycled organic waste.
The research covers biosorbents produced from agricultural waste, neural-network tools for assessing soil microbial communities, soil metagenome mapping and methods for restoring low-productivity land.
The studies are being carried out under SFedU’s strategic technology project “Soil Bioengineering Technologies”, implemented within the federal Priority-2030 programme. Practical work is being conducted in Kalmykia, where university scientists have been involved since 2025 in projects to create artificial soils on degraded sites and improve the productivity of marginal land.
A further event in the Russian programme was the round table “The Role of the Russian Agrochemical Service in Monitoring the Fertility of Agricultural Land.” Participants discussed approaches combining field observations, satellite technologies and automated data processing.
SFedU’s participation in COP17 provided an opportunity to present Russian scientific solutions to the international expert community and discuss their application in regions most vulnerable to land degradation and desertification.
