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The purpose of the article is to reveal the peculiarities of organizing agricultural research and education in Ukraine in the period of the national liberation movements in 1917-1921, and to determine the role of the Agricultural Scientific Committee of Ukraine and the Committee of Agricultural Education in their establishment. The authors compared the models of the development of agrarian research and education under Ukrainian Central Rada, Hetman P. Skoropadskyi, the Directory, and Soviet authorities. Coordination of sectoral science and education in Ukraine began with the establishment the General Secretariat of Land Affairs of the Ukrainian Central Rada in 1917. The conceptual foundations of Ukrainian science and education, the core of which was Ukrainization, were developed by the First and Second All-Ukrainian Pedagogical Congresses, as well as the First All-Ukrainian Agronomic and Economic Congress. Ukrainization primarily concerned the conduct of the scientific and educational process and the writing of new books and textbooks in national language. The article reveals the creative initiatives of the Agricultural Scientific Committee of Ukraine and the Committee of Agricultural Education in coordinating the activities of some institutions to disseminate agricultural knowledge and the organization of sectoral research and education, substantiated by the important role of famous politicians. The use of international experience for the practical confirmation of theoretical skills in various agricultural directions is highlighted. The Agricultural Scientific Committee of Ukraine, simultaneously instituted with the Committee on Agricultural Education, was interested in close creative cooperation on the sectoral specialist training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors of the article explore the concepts 'agricultural biographics' and 'agricultural biographistics', proposing an interpretation of the terms. 'Agricultural biographistics' is defined as a full palette of portraits of agricultural scientists, sectoral bibliographical and biobibliographical reference publications, and the creation of electronic resources of biographical information about eminent figures in the field of agriculture. 'Agricultural biographics' is a distinct branch of historiography focusing on biographical research about agricultural scientists, and the theoretical and methodological foundations of biographical research of agricultural scientists. The article analyses the achievements in scientific bibliographical research of the Department of Biographistics at the Institute of History of Agrarian Science, Education and Technology of the National Scientific Agricultural Library of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine (NSAL NAAS). The authors argue that much of specifically historical research exists alongside inadequate theoretical studies on its foundations, which, accordingly, calls for the development of some aspects of agricultural biographistics. The article also outlines the theoretical and methodological visions in the biographies of agricultural scholars, considering also the architectonics of the publications, the types/models of biographies, and methodological approaches. Here a particular emphasis is on innovative methodological concepts of the biographies of agricultural scientists: the application of a sociocultural approach, the network model, methods of synergetics, the concept of 'emotional community', methodology of mental maps, etc. The article proposes potential future directions for the development of agricultural biographistics--among others, the potentional of developing terminology, developing a methodology for conducting research on agricultural scientists, approbation of the newest methods for the study and compilation of biographies, attracting interdisciplinary theoretical value, expanding the database on biographical sources, developing methods for the use and analysis of sources, and selecting optimal methods for their study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The second half of the 20th century was marked by epoch-making discoveries in the field of biochemistry and physiology of crop nutrition. Many of the achievements of the Ukrainian scientists have gone unnoticed by the foreign colleagues during the Soviet era, as most of them have been published in Russian-language periodicals, which have not always been available to them. In this context, the research of Ukrainian researchers, who clarified the essence of the influence of the organic substances, mineral fertilizers, micronutrients and physiologically active substances on the crop growth, development and productivity in different soil and climatic conditions gained importance and worldwide recognition. Their research on the physiological role of manganese in the crop nutrition, the establishment of the biological value of boron, cobalt, lithium, molybdenum, zinc and other microelements are of global priority. For the first time, Ukrainian scientists have compiled cartograms of content of the mobile forms of microelements in different soils of Ukraine. Using the method of the labeled atoms, the researchers have discovered the new patterns of metabolism of carbon, calcium, sulfur, phosphorus and other compounds, which contributed to the effective study of the mechanisms of distribution, supply and transport of nutrients in the crops. This discovery has found wide practical application in agriculture of Ukraine and foreign countries. In particular, the development and application of organo-mineral nutrition of the crops in its rotations, improvement of technologies for growing the cereals and vegetables by establishing industrial production and large-scale application of the organic and mineral fertilizers with micronutrients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]