EFFICIENCY OF THE FOREST RECLAMATION IN EROSION HAZARD AGROLANPSCAPES

Abstract

The economic analysis of the agro-economic efficiency of forest reclamation, based on the calculation of the cost of soil fertility and crop losses in the eroded arable land of the Russian Plain, prevented by runoff-regulating forest belts, shows that it depends on three main factors: site inclination and the degree of washout of the soil cover; natural and climatic conditions; bio-engineering features of afforestation. The control of forest strips of soil erosion in the agrolandscape occurs with optimal inter-band spaces, which decrease with increasing steepness of the slope and increase (in the zonal direction) as the annual rainfall norm and the volume of erosion-dangerous runoff decrease, and when forest-forming breeds adapt to washed-out soils. The most significant anti-erosion effect in annual terms in all natural areas is achieved with forest-meliorative development of slopes with a steepness of more than 5 degrees with strongly washed soils. Its value is about 60–200 thousand rubles per 1 hectare of reclaimed land. At the same time, the agro-meliorative effect is 6–7 thousand rubles / ha per year. Aggregate agro-economic efficiency for the entire service life of forest belts under the accepted conditions is equal to 0.5–8.0 million rubles (in prices of 2017). In the zonal section, the effectiveness of the anti-erosion forest melioration decreases from the forest-steppe to the dry steppe. Forest belts of fast-growing early ripening species exceed the forest belts from durable breeds by 9–33% by average annual efficiency. However, in the calculation for the entire service life of the stand, they are inferior to them by 14–26%.