Register of especially valuable productive agricultural lands of the Russian Federation

V. S. Stolbovoy¹, P. M. Shilov¹, R. D. Petrosyan^2
1Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute, Pyzhevskii per., 7, str. 2b, Moskva, 119017, Russian Federation
²Upper Volga Federal Agrarian Scientific Center, ul. Tsentral’naya, 3, pos. Novyi, Suzdal’skii r-n, Vladimirskaya obl., 601261, Russian Federation

Abstract.This paper proposes criteria and boundaries for the allocation of especially valuable productive agricultural land (EVPAL). As a criterion for production value, it is advisable to use bonitet scores traditionally used as fertility indicators of the Russian agricultural soils. In a 100-point bonitet scale we identified three EVPAL levels: federal (more than 50 points; standard grain yield is more than 2.5 t/ha), regional (25–50 points; standard grain yield is 1.25–2.50 t/ha), and municipal (less than 25 points; normative grain yield is less than 1.25 t/ha). Thus, in accordance with the requirements of Article 72 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation the competence and responsibility of the EVPAL management are shared. Federal EVPAL accounts for 42% of the Russian arable land fund. These are mainly arable organic-accumulative chernozem soils. EVPAL included in the regional level occupy in total 36% of the country’s agricultural lands and are represented by arable texture-differentiated sod-podzolic soils of the forest-meadow zone and arable humus-accumulative chestnut soils of dry steppes. EVPAL of the municipal level accounts for 13% of agricultural land in the Russian Federation, which are common in forest-meadow and dry-steppe zones. At the municipal level texture-differentiated sod-podzolic gleyic and gley soils dominate, as well as humus-accumulative light chestnut saline-alkali soils. We developed a prototype of the EVPAL register database of the Russian Federation. It is based on a new digital geoinformation database including soil data of the Russian agricultural lands. Its semantic part includes 10,107 typological units of soil quality, which, in addition to various soil characteristics, include the parameters necessary for calculating the soil bonitet. The geometrical part of the database consists of 54,695 cartographic units of soil quality, which are formed by overlaying the polygons of the maps used to create its semantic part. The EVPAL register database operates on the QGIS platform allowing for the presentation of the results as digital maps.

Keywords: soils; fertility; especially valuable productive agricultural lands; bonitet score.

Author Details: V. S. Stolbovoy, D. Sc. (Geogr.), head of division (e-mail: Этот адрес электронной почты защищён от спам-ботов. У вас должен быть включен JavaScript для просмотра.); P. M. Shilov, junior research fellow; R. D. Petrosyan, junior research fellow.

For citation: Stolbovoy VS, Shilov PM, Petrosyan RD. [Register of especially valuable productive agricultural lands of the Russian Federation]. Dostizheniya nauki i tekhniki APK. 2021;35(1):4-11. Russian. doi: 10.24411/0235-2451-2021-10101.