Abstract
In Ukraine, as in the rest of the world, the part of lands contaminated with pollutants, in particular, heavy metals, is growing. However, on these lands it is possible to grow crops that provide safe, economically viable products. The study of the maize agrocenosis state in the conditions of soil contamination with lead, cadmium, zinc testified that the crops have the high resistance to the increase of metal content in the soil environment. Maize as a grain crop has a high viability and buffer barrier to pollutants. It is able to partially accumulate and fix the metals by the root system, bringing to the commodity part of the crop only a small proportion of them, not exceeding the maximum allowable concentration, and reduce the risk of further expansion of areas contaminated with these ecotoxicants. The variants are provided by the experiment allowed to obtain a grain yield of 7.36–9.32 t/ha (average level of variation 10.24 %). In plots with 5–100-fold excess of the background of heavy metals, the grain yield tended to a reducing by1.16–1.96 t/ha (LSD05 = 1.88) compared to the control, i.e. the loss of maize yield was 12–21 %. It was found that soil contamination with pollutants led to a decrease in yield and profit compared to the natural background (control). The maximum income (14 575 UAH/ha) was obtained in the variant with a natural background, which is associated with a high yield of maize grain. The analysis of research results showed that the profitability of maize grain production at the yield of 7.36–9.32 t/ha varied according to the level of ecotope contamination with pollutants and amounted to 31–63 %. The profitability is indicator that makes it possible to comprehensively assess all factors. The cultivation of maize in areas with soil contamination with heavy metals exceeding by 5 and 10 times the natural background provided a level of profitability of 39 and 44 %, respectively, and was economically feasible. This allowed to effectively use the agriculture lands with constantly renewed soil contamination for profit from the cultivation of agricultural products while preventing the expansion of the contamination area. Key words: corn, heavy metals, yield, profit, economic efficiency, profitability.
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