Agricultural Research Centre – a solid partner!
Today’s Agricultural Research Centre (ARC) participates in the implementation of the national plant health and food safety control system, carries out field testing, agro-environmental monitoring, rural eonomic analysis and rural networking.
- The vision of ARC is to be a competence centre for agricultural analysis and field testing, reliable partner for designing the agricultural and rural development policy, creating and disseminating new knowledge to the agricultural and rural sector.
- The mission of ARC is to support decision making process of agricultural and rural actors by knowledge provision.
The centre’s certified laboratories are capable of carrying out most of the analyses required in the agricultural sector, they are able to:
- determine the nutrient content of the soil;
- determine the quality of seeds of cereals and other agricultural crops;
- assess the nutritional value of feeds;
- diagnose pests and plant diseases.
Variety testing centres, incl conducting applied research - field trials for private companies
VCU (Value for Cultivation and Use) tests are carried out in three testing centres:
- Kuusiku Variety Testing Centre,
- Viljandi Variety Testing Centre,
- Võru Variety Testing Centre.
DUS (Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability) tests and official post-control of certified seed are carried out in Viljandi Variety Testing Centre.
Monitoring of agri-environmental measures and performing on-going evaluation of Estonian Rural Development Plan (RDP)
Since 2005, ARC has been engaged in monitoring and assessing the impact of environmental measures of the Estonian Rural Development Plan and since 2019, evaluating all measures of the Rural Development Plan.
An e-solution for the suitability of Estonian soils, created by our specialists, enables farmers to plan themselves their land use and crop rotation of their fields. Since 2018, we participate in the preparation of the Big Data System for Agriculture.
Analysing the economic activity of the agricultural producers and conducting rural economy analysis.
Agricultural Research Centre is the official contact point of Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) of the European Commission. For this purpose ARC collects and analyses data on farmers’ economic activity.
Agricultural Research Centre carries out the functions of the National Rural Network Unit by collecting support examples of the Rural Development Plan and contributing to the innovative developments of rural areas. One of the biggest events organised is the Estonian Open Farm Day. For example, in 2019 more than 300 farms were open and 190 thousand visits to farms were reached.
Management of agricultural park
In 2003, an Estonian Agricultural Park was established in Kuusiku. Today you can see the collections of Estonian crops, ornamental plants, fruit and berry plants.
