ORGANIZING SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL LAND MANAGEMENT IN ALTAI KRAI: A GEO-ECOLOGICAL PROSPECT

Abstract

In recent decades, the agriculture of Altai Krai has been considered an agro-industrial complex. The total land area is 17 million hectares, and more than 11.5 million hectares are classified as agricultural lands. The area of arable land amounts to 6.5 million hectares. More than 90% of total agricultural land area, to various extents, is subject to erosion and soil blowing; less than 10 kg of mineral fertilizers are required. According to expert estimates, agricultural crops experience an acute lack of nutrients in the soil, which deteriorates the quality of the crop. In this regard, contemporary agricultural land management in Altai Krai is highly volatile and unsustainable. One example is the Strategic Direction of Scientific and Technological Development of the Russian Federation and other long-term regulatory documents defining the development of agriculture in the next 10–15 years, which establish the transition of some agricultural organizations to an alternative, high-tech, and environmentally friendly organic agricultural sector. Organic farming is based on the management of organic agricultural land. In those territories that conform to certification requirements, organic land management in Altai Krai can partly become an alternative path to an agro-industrial one. However, to move to a high-tech level of organization of contemporary agricultural land management in Altai Krai, it is necessary to implement all measures related to the geo- and agro-ecological justification of the use of the territory. To be exact, it is crucial to conduct (1) retrospective analysis of land management (based on the materials of soil surveys and land management systems for collective and state farms developed in the last century); (2) assessment of the ecology of the structure of the agricultural landscape and the structure of acreage and crop rotation system; (3) modeling of the agricultural landscape and the ratio of land; (4) ecological and economic analysis of land-use models.