Home – Home – Jornals – Geography and Natural Resources 2022 number 3

It has been established that the main factor hindering the development of agricultural production in Russia is soil degradation of agricultural landscapes, including chernozems - the country’s most important natural resource. It is concluded that the chief reason behind the deterioration of the genetic properties of soils is a long period of their extensive use. The changes in the political and economic systems of the country that took place at the turn of the 20^th and 21^st centuries also affected agriculture. A course was taken for the transition to intensive farming, for achieving maximum possible crop yields in small areas with high quality soils. To work out the methods of intensive farming within the chernozem belt of the Ural, it became necessary to preliminarily rehabilitate soil properties. In this regard, the study of the processes of restoration of the properties of degraded chernozems was the goal of this study. As a method of restoring soil properties, a largely forgotten agricultural method was used, which is a long-term fallow. The restoration of the main properties of chernozem was carried out simultaneously with the recovery of the species composition of vegetation and included three stages: the stage of “young” fallow (5 years from the time of withdrawal from arable land), “middle-aged”, or 12 years of stay in the fallow, and “old-age”, after a 25-year period of restoration of soil properties. At the end of each stage, the species composition of phytocenoses was studied and the chemical, biological and physical properties of chernozems were determined. It has been established that at the end of the period of stay of soils in the state of fallow, they almost completely restore their genetic properties, including those that ensure their fertility. Thus this agricultural method does not require capital expenditures for its implementation and allows the relevant goal to be achieved.