The department was founded in 1922. The first head was soil scientist F.I. Levchenko, well-known soil scientists worked at the department: M.M. Godlin, A.I. Zrazhevskyi, S.O. Zolotaryov, and P.V. Zakharchuk, and others.

For significant successes in scientific work, members of the department became laureates of the State Prize of Ukraine in Science and Technology (M.K. Shykula and O.G. Tarariko) and received the title of Honored Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine (M. K. Shykula).

 Currently, the department has 15 teaching staff, including 6 doctors of agricultural sciences and 9 candidates of sciences (PhD). Professor A.D. Balayev is the head of the Ukrainian Society of Soil Scientists and Agrochemists (USSA). Members of the department take an active part in USSA congresses. Lecturers of the department, post-graduate students, masters and students are involved in scientific work. According to the results of research, more than 100 candidates of sciences and 20 doctors of sciences had defended at the department.

Since the 1970s, the school of the founder of soil conservation agriculture, professor M.K. Shikula, has been functionating at the department for research and development of soil conservation technologies of growing crops, which are based on minimum tillage and organic agriculture.

Scientists of the department, based on many years of fundamental research, have developed soil protection technologies for growing crops for the main soil and climate zones of Ukraine, which provide:

• conservation and restoration of soil organic matter;

• increase water supply for crops due to higher productive moisture content;

• improve the structural-aggregate composition and prevent soil agrophysical degradation;

• soil protection from water and wind erosion;

• reduce the cost of crop production due to resource and energy saving.

                                                                                             Department staff, 2022

Seated: Balaev A.D., Bulygin S.Yu., Zabaluyev V.O.,  S. V. Vitvitsky,  Berezhnyak M.F.,

standing: O.V. Subbotina,  V. M. Kozak, N. V.,  Tonkha O.L., R. P. Bogdanovich, O. V. Pikovska, Yu.S. Kravchenko,

Voloshina N.V.,  K. S. Karabach, I. V.,  Nosenko V. G.,  Kucherenko І. V.,  Ryabchun N. P.

Department composition as of September 2024

  In recent years, the teachers of the department have prepared and published a large amount of educational and methodological and scientific literature, namely 3 textbooks, 10 manuals, more than a hundred articles in scientific publications. The textbooks "Soil Protection" and "Soil Science with Basics of Geology" received favorable reviews from both lecturers and students, and became the basis for teaching soil science disciplines.

During the entire period of work, the department prepared 20 doctors, about 100 candidates of sciences, published 75 textbooks, study guides and monographs, received 27 copyright certificates for inventions and patents. The members of the department were awarded the high scientific titles of Academician of the National Academy of Sciences (O. G. Tararico, S. Yu. Bulygin, V. A. Velichko), Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences (A. D. Balaev), Honored Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine (M. K. Shikula), Laureate of the State Prize of Ukraine (O. G. Tarariko, M. K. Shikula).

Employees of the department participated in the preparation of the Laws of Ukraine "On land protection", "On the national program of land use and protection", "On organic production" adopted or prepared for adoption by the Verkhovna Rada.

Cooperation with leading educational and scientific institutions of both domestic and other countries is developing. Employees of the department have done internships or participated in scientific conferences in China, England, France, Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Germany. In recent years, the department has also accepted teachers from universities in China, Syria, and Turkey for internships, exchange of experience, and expansion of scientific knowledge.

The staff of the Department of Soil Science and Soil Protection approached the 120th anniversary of the university with a sense of great responsibility for preserving and continuing the glorious traditions of previous generations of teachers and scientists, with a desire to work on solving acute problems of scientific support for land reform, as well as with an awareness of their role in training qualified a specialist of the new generation, able to provide reliable protection, effective use and reproduction of the greatest wealth of Ukraine – fertile soils.