The students’ research topics are based on joint field studies of the participating countries concerning agroecological practices, including: the productivity of cereal and leguminous cover crops, the provision of ecosystem services, the yield response to the application of biostimulants, environmental impact assessment, life cycle assessment, and the evaluation of cover crops as food and feed.

We, Iryna Shpakovych, a PhD student at the Department of Genetics, Plant Breeding, and Seed Production named after Prof. M.O. Zelenskyi, and Eduard Franchuk, a student at the Faculty of Agrobiology, had a unique opportunity to study in modern laboratories with state-of-the-art equipment as part of the Ecotwins project at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark). There, we learned about innovative research methods in the fields of agronomy, agroecology, and sustainable agriculture.

At the university's educational and research center, under the guidance of Bhim Bahadur Ghaley and his PhD students, we collected plant samples from experimental plots, learned scientific methods, and analyzed data used by researchers at the University of Copenhagen. Together with Saad Mir, a PhD student at the university, we compared the yield of green mass and dry matter from different experiment variants and replications, and also studied the infestation of plants by pests.

An interesting part of the work was the identification and preservation of pests that infested the plants in the experimental variants.

Albert Colom, an assistant, and Vaibhav Chaudhary, a PhD student, conducted an interesting workshop for us on determining leaf surface area using the Easy Leaf/Canopy Area software. These programs allow researchers to quickly and accurately measure the leaf area of plants, which is an important indicator of their productivity. We learned how to use these programs on various plant species and were impressed by their accuracy and ease of use.