International Perspectives: Introducing Sergey Ryzhov

I am happy to welcome Sergey Ryzhov as a representative of Ag Leader in Eastern Europe, the CIS countries.

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Sergey was born in Poland, where his parents were members of USSR`s Military Mission. His father was a fighter pilot, flying on a Russian SU27 plane, his mother is an accountant. After completion of the mission, Sergey`s family came back to Ukraine. Here, Sergey graduated from the local high school with specialties in Mathematics and Information Technologies.

After high school, Sergey moved to Kharkiv (former capital of Ukraine) to study at the Kharkiv National University, named V.N. Karazin, at the physical faculty. His specialism in the University was physical optics, and completed his Master of Physics degree.

V.N. Karazin, Kharkiv National University, is one of the oldest universities in Eastern Europe. It was founded in November 1804, on the initiative of the prominent educator V.N. Karazin and in accordance with the charter of Tsar Alexander I. Typically, universities for International Students Training and Pre-Enrolment Training Center provide education for 15,000 students and 500 postgraduate students.

After graduation at the University, Sergey was invited to work at Agri Land Ltd (in the past a daughter company of AgriCon, a well known company in precision agriculture from Germany). Sergey got the task to manage nitrogen sensors. This job fitted well to his study of optical physics. In order to enlarge his knowledge, Sergey studied GPS technologies. This included field measuring and soil sampling. This all was learned through practice with the installation of various brands of guidance and steering systems, nitrogen sensors, and VRA. He also developed and implemented vehicle monitoring system in his company. After a few years in AgriLand, Sergey was invited to the company Agro Invest Ltd., to become manager of the after sales service department. Agro Invest is the largest Leica Geosystems dealer in the world. Here Sergey gathered a lot of experience in installing and servicing systems for precision farming. After a short period, Sergey became responsible also for sales and installing and supporting of the Leica systems.

In his free time, Sergey likes to do active outdoor sports. Less active, but also appreciated, are fishing and traveling. In this new job his appreciation of traveling fits extremely well.

Sergey is married, and living in the city of Vishgorod. Vyshhorod, or Vyshgorod, is a city in central Ukraine, the immediate northern suburb to the national capital Kiev, located upstream along the Dnieper River. Population: 27,000. Kiev, or Kyiv, is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country. The population of Kiev is about 2,611,300.

Of Ukraine's total land area of 60 million hectares, of which roughly 42 million (103 million acres) is classified as agricultural land, which includes cultivated land (grains, technical crops, forages, potatoes and vegetables), gardens, orchards, vineyards, and permanent meadows and pastures. To compare this to USA figures: Iowa has 30,8 million acres (= 12,5 million hectares) agricultural land, so agricultural Ukraine is more than 3 times Iowa. Winter wheat, spring barley, and corn are the country's main grain crops. Sunflowers and sugar beets are the main technical, or industrial, crops.

At Ag Leader, we are pleased to welcome Sergey on board as of October 1, as representative for the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries.