Faculty of Agricultural Technologies, Breeding and Ecology
Department of Plant Protection
Prof. Valentina Onipko, our contact at Poltava State Agrarian University, continues to champion humane education. Already in October 2023, she had convinced her colleagues of the Department of Agriculture and Agrochemistry. In early 2024, she encouraged her colleague, Hanna Pospelova of the Department of Plant Protection to join the project. Also, the head of department, Prof. Viktor Pysarenko, showed interest in adopting humane teaching methods.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the number of experiments conducted in the course had significantly decreased. The current focus is on studying the impact of pesticides and insecticides on beneficial entomofauna in agricultural ecosystems. Mainly toxicity experiments are being conducted that result in the annual killing of at least 540 insects including bees, butterflies and moths, as well as 20-40 mice.
In April 2024, the department received from us a laptop, a beamer and several discs with simulation programmes. By signing the contract, the department undertakes to stop all animal use in the student course from April 1, 2024.
The Department of Plant Protection is the second department of the Poltava State Agricultural University to introduce animal-free teaching.
Dimitrij Leporskij (left), project coo-ordinator and Prof. Viktor Pysarenko, head of the Department of Plant Protection
Hanna Pospelova, associate professor of the Department of Plant Protection.