Brief history
The Minister of Agriculture and Forestry approved the establishment of the Ștefănești Horticultural and Viticultural Experimental Station, Argeș region, by Order No. 498890 of April 15, 1959.
The purpose of the station establishing was to organize a model horticultural and viticultural unit for the area and, at the same time, to solve the main problems of the development of viticulture and fruit growing in the Argeș region, especially on sloping lands. Among the basic problems that it had to solve, we mention: the rational use of sloping lands by planting with grapevine and trees; increasing the fertility of poor lands taken into cultivation; establishing adequate, economic, and grapevine and trees cultivation technologies; studying grapevine and tree varieties, and multiplying the valuable ones adapted to the area; obtaining new resistant and productive varieties; producing grapevine and fruit growing planting material to support actions in the region; establishing grapes processing technologies to obtain quality wines.
Starting with 1962, a large-scale action to enrich the patrimony of the station was launched. Adding to the patrimony of the stationof of over 1000 ha of arable land and 155 ha of pastures and hayfields, these takeovers created premises for broadening its activity profile. Thus, by Order no. 237 of March 23, 1962, the Ministry of Agriculture decided to reprofile the unit, and starting with April 1st, its transformation into the Complex Experimental Station Ștefănești – Argeș.
The stage 1962-1966, as an experimental station, meant a accentuated expansion of the research activity and, to the same time, of the research team. In addition to the development of the laboratories that existed until then, many new ones were established, focused on research on natural pastures and hayfields cultivated on podzolic soils; the breeding and improvement of certain breeds of dairy cattle; the improvement of certain vegetable species; pedology; agricultural improvements; potato cultivation; agricultural mechanization; irrigation; agrotechnics of the main cereal crops on podzolic soils. Since 1963, the station has acquired the character of a zonal unit and the name of Argeș Experimental Station.
In 1967, horticulture in Argeș experienced a moment of particular importance, with the establishment of the Research Institute for Fruit Growing. For the Argeș Experimental Station, this moment represented the beginning of a process of division and restructuring in the interest of specializing agricultural research in the area. All the laboratories of the fruit growing profile, as well as horticultural and mechanization improvements, were separated, moving to the new fruit growing institute. Not long after, the process of reorganizing agricultural research in Argeș County entered a new stage, that of the establishment of the Albota Agricultural Research Station, which was separated in 1970 with 873 ha of land, together with the entire zootechnical sector. During the same period, the agrochemistry activity was separated from the station, transforming into a county laboratory. The process of splitting the station ended in the spring of 1978, with the establishment of S.C.P.P Argeșelul, with a fruit growing profile.
Following these structural transformations regarding both research activity and patrimony, the resort regained its predominantly viticultural character, enteringin a new stage of development, the stage of the Experimental Viticultural Station.
Research activity in viticulture has developed through laboratories specialized in viticultural agrotechnics, soil and plant, phytosanitary protection and phytopharmacy, mechanization of maintenance works of fruitful vineyard plantations, production of viticultural planting material. Alongside these, research into the improvement of some vegetable species has continued.
Since 1969, with the full commissioning of the winemaking complex, especially its laboratories equipped with high-performance devices, the development of a new form of winemaking research began. The winemaking complex, located in the middle of over 1000 hectares of vineyards, with experimental plantations and ampelographic collections, was one of the most modern winemaking complexes and wine research laboratories in the country at that time. In the complex building has been installed the viticulture department, and the wine research and production department; in these subunits, original anti-erosion management systems for vineyards, modern systems and technologies for grapevine cultivation, thorough research on applied viticultural ecology were developed, and cutting-edge technologies were established for obtaining dry white wines, aromatic and red wines, alcoholic beverages and wine by-products.
Without any changes in the content of the activity, in 1975 the unit changed its name to the Viticulture Research Station. Under this name, together with the entire network of viticulture stations coordinated by the I.C.V.V. Valea Călugărească, it was transferred in 1977 to the Vine and Wine Central. In 1979, the same network constituted the Economic and Viticulture Production Trust within the General Economic Directorate of Horticulture. Since 1980, the unit has been called the Viticulture Research and Production Station, operating in double subordination, to the D.G.E.H. through the Viticulture Trust and to the ASAS through the I.C.V.V. Valea Călugărească.
The year 1982 marked the beginning of a new stage in the development of the station, characterized by the expansion and, at the same time, the deepening of research, along with the material endowment, the increase in specialized personnel, the modernization and expansion of the patrimony. Genetic research, the creation of productive varieties resistant to the main diseases, became important profiles and themes in the thematic plan, constituting new research for the unit. Research on the improvement of the assortment, viticultural improvements, agrochemistry and viticultural ecology were organized on completely new bases. Research on the grapevine biochemistry and physiology was started, and research on phytosanitary protection, agrotechnics and viticultural phytotechnics, the mechanization of the works of plantations establishing and exploitation, and the improvement of some vegetable species were expanded and deepened. The vegetable sector has become one of the most important centers in the country for the creation of the first hybrids and indigenous varieties of tomatoes, lettuce varieties, red cabbage, and the production of seeds of cabbage, cucumbers, and tetraploid beets.
In the winemaking field, a new profile of microbiology research was introduced in the thematic plan, with a special focus on the yeast microflora of the Ștefănești – Argeș vineyard, and research on the specialization and diversification of wine production, the valorization of winemaking by-products, the elaboration and aging of different types of wine and distillates was expanded. Multidisciplinary research was organized on experimental polygons, with the generalization of microvinification of grape samples by the oenology laboratory according to standardized and controlled technologies, with computer assistance of the research.
The commissioning in 1987 of modern facilities for rapid propagation, including virus elimination, of valuable biological material allowed the creation of the complex for the grapevine breeding and multiplication, a pilot unit which fully integrates research in genetics, breeding, virology, mineral nutrition with rapid propagation, including “in vitro“. This pilot station was particularly effective in the rapid introduction of research results into production, constituting the starting point for the organization of the production of grapevine planting on new modern bases.
Important technological development actions at the pilot station level were carried out in the field of extracting tartaric acid from yeast, obtaining high-quality vinars, producing sparkling Muscat according to the I.C.V.V. method, planting material producing, and industrially growth of Trichogramma wasp, used in the biological control of grape moths and other tree pests.
In 2004, following a reorganization process, based on the diversification of research and development activity, INCDBH Ştefăneşti – Argeş was established (GD no. 2113 of November 24, 2004), with a total land area of 1358.24 ha. The new research directions aimed: the multiplication of ornamental, medicinal and aromatic plants by biotechnological methods; the organization of the laboratory for the detection of genetically modified organisms, the extension of the national collection of viticultural germplasm; the approach to methods of virus elimination in grapevines by chemotherapy and electrotherapy. The endowment of the wine chemistry laboratory with high-performance equipment ensured the certification of the quality of the institute’s wines and other profile units in the state and private sector. The improvement of the assortment of horticultural products was achieved by introducing newly created plant varieties into culture.
The tumultuous transformations of one of the longest-running Romanian horticultural research units continued with the return of the National Research and Development Institute for Biotechnology in Horticulture Ştefăneşti – Argeș under the subordination of ASAS Bucharest, through the publication of Government Decision no. 706 of September 17, 2019 on the reorganization of the National Research and Development Institute for Biotechnology in Horticulture Ştefăneşti and for the amendment of Annex no. 3 to Government Decision no. 1705/2006 for the approval of the centralized inventory of state public domain assets, published in the Official monitor no. 795 of October 1, 2019. This latest amendment to the institute’s statute is intended to be a new beginning, a recovery of the financial situation, issues related to heritage, human resources and more.