Home – Home – Jornals – Geography and Natural Resources 2019 number 1

A rationale is provided for the need for agroecological assessment of lands which serves as a framework to establish new systems of adaptive farming developed for the purpose of rationalizing land use and implemented in land management. An analysis is made of the existing structure and status of agricultural lands in the Upper Angara region (as exemplified by the Irkutskii district of Irkutsk oblast). An agroecological assessment of land has been made to identify their agroecological potential. The analysis identified agroecological groups of lands differing by a number of natural and agro-economic features. The assessment took into account indicators, such as soil fertility, soil response to agri-cultural use, characteristics of the occurrence of soils depending on topography, steepness of slopes, and agricultural crop yields (such as wheat and forage grasses). The findings of research relying mainly on various cartographic products were used in developing and compiling the assessment and recommendation map at the scale of 1:200 000. The map provides insight into the location of agroecological groups of soils with particular properties, their potential use for particular types of agricultural lands, productivity of crops and agroecological features of soils under cultivation and undergoing appropriate agromeliorative measures to prevent negative processes, and to maintain and improve soil fertility. It determined that the entire agro-potential of the territory is concentrated in its central part, an active socio-economic development of which leads to the withdrawal of valuable agricultural lands from turnover. Large areas of the eastern and southern parts of the territory are not suitable for potential farming, with the exception of relatively planate areas of lands near settlements which can be used for grazing (in the forest) and haymaking.