Reproduction of soil fertility in adaptive landscape farming systems of the foothill zone of the RNO-Alania

Abstract

Modern intensification of agriculture has significantly speeded up the processes of land destruction and loss of its fertility. This has led to the deterioration in the agroecological situation, boost in the potential fertility of land, and a significant decrease in yields and quality of agricultural products. The purpose of our research was the rational use of land, while compacting the link of the grain crop rotation. The studies were carried out in the foothill zone of the Republic of North Ossetia – Alania, on leached chernozems, in the subzone of sufficient moisture. In the experiments, oats were sown in pure form, mixed with peas, as well as a variant of a pea-oat-sunflower mixture, with harvesting terms for green fodder, grain haylage and grain. Today pea-oat-sunflower mixture, unlike corn for silage, is a resource-saving, low-cost and multicomponent mixture. After harvesting these crops, the crop rotation is compacted by buckwheat crops for grain. With such a sparing use of land resources, the high self-cleaning ability of these mixtures and buckwheat reduces the cost and increases the productivity of arable land. An increase in soil fertility is achieved by introducing green manure crops (winter and spring rapeseed, oilseed radish, white mustard, winter rye, etc.), which, when plowing, improve the soil structure (structural coefficient up to 3), boost the humus content in the soil by 0.02 – 0.05%, neutralize the acidity of the soil environment (up to pH = 5.5 – 6,7), clean the soil from excess nitrates, heavy metals, pesticide residues, etc., and enhance the yield by 15-20%.