INFLUENCE OF SUGAR BEET PRECURSORS ON QUALITY INDICATORS OF ROOTS
The research was carried out in order to generalize the results on the influence of predecessors and quality indicators of varieties and hybrids on the keeping quality of the root crop. Sugar beet, as the only domestic source of raw materials for sugar production in Russia, rightfully remains a strategic crop. Valuable products obtained during the processing of root crops are widely used in animal husbandry. As a precursor, sugar beet has a positive effect on all crops in the sugar beet crop rotation. Sugar beets are grown in 28 subjects of the Russian Federation by about 5,000 sugar beet farms, and they are processed at 93 sugar factories with a total capacity of 273,000 tons per day. Domestic sugar production in Russia is about 1.5 million tons, in addition, 3.5-4 million tons are purchased in the form of raw sugar and white sugar on the foreign market. This crop has a high potential for productivity, which is currently underutilized in a number of countries. Since the beginning of the last century, its world production has increased more than twelve times and amounted to 142 million 125 thousand tons in the financial year 2020. In the European Community, the largest producers of sugar from sugar beets are France and Germany, which produced more than half of all sugar (France - 28.5%, Germany - 23.3%). When cultivating sugar beet in the farms of the Kursk region, first of all, crop rotation is observed, and especially its links - black fallow - winter wheat - sugar beet, which is one of the prerequisites for obtaining a high yield with intensive technology. Sugar beets are very intensive crops, absorbing a large amount of nutrients from the soil, which are restored through the application of fertilizers. The correct application of fertilizers is possible with an exhaustive knowledge of the needs of plants for nutrients, as well as with sufficient information about their presence in the soil. For sugar beet, 140-160 kg of nitrogen, 150-170 kg of phosphorus and 150-170 kg of potassium (active ingredient) are applied on typical and leached chernozems per hectare, on podzolized chernozems and gray forest soils, the nitrogen rate is increased to 150-170 kg d.c.