Measuring the Impact of Land Degradation on Agricultural Output: The Case of the Volgograd Region (Russia)

Abstract

It is essential to accompany environmental objectives in the agricultural industry with resources and economic assessments. The complexity of such researches lies in need to compare economic, natural, and climatic indicators different in nature and sources of information. In the second half of the 20th century, various methods were developed to include indicators of soil and land resource quality in econometric analysis, in particular, in the Cobb-Douglas production function. During these studies, the approach was based on the statistical and accounting records of peasant (farm) enterprises and agricultural organizations of the Volgograd Region in 2015 by comparing them with secondary literature on land degradation in the region. The modified linear-logarithmic production function was constructed by analogy with the methodology of S. Walpole, J. Sinden, and T. Yapp. The calculations showed that the salinity of agricultural lands in the region where the agricultural enterprise is situated is insignificant but has a negative impact on the income (revenue) of farms and agricultural organizations. However, due to adaptive technologies, high soil bonitet score, and more efficient use of resources, peasant farms look more economically stable than agricultural enterprises in the Volgograd Region.