Secondary Development of Unused Land

Abstract

Abstract—Unused lands in northwest Russia are quickly overgrown by wood and shrub vegetation (WSV). Their effective development for forage is associated with the search for optimal safe solutions both for processing of this vegetation and for restoring fertility of sod-podzolic soils. The goal of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of new technological options for fertility restoration of sod-podzolic soils on developed bushed fallow lands using the products from processing of above-ground biomass of trees and shrubs and cheap local ameliorants. The object of the study was the bushed fallow land developed for fodder crop rotation. A sharp decrease in the yield of annual grasses (up to five times) against the background of introducing the wood and shrub vegetation processing products into soil was established. Meanwhile, the content of raw protein and ash substances in the green mass of herbs decreased by 8–13%. The use of a complex of chemical ameliorants allowed not only to level these inevitable costs of cultural reclamation but also to bring the yield of green grass in the best options of the experiment to 37–44 t/ha. According to the experiment, the average yield from the ameliorant complex was 79% in direct action and 27% in the aftereffect. The best performance is achieved with the use of ameliorants with biochar, which reduced the CO2 release into the atmosphere by five times.