Land selection for cultivation of sugar beet in Slovakia

The article aims to analyze suitability of land selection for cultivation of sugar beet in Slovakia in the period from 2008 to 2012. The results confirmed, that there are enough soils suitable for sugar beet growing in Slovakia. The area of sugar beet cultivation is conditioned by the presence of only two sugar rafineries, which are in operation, in Sered and Trencianska Tepla. The most productive soils in the climatically most suitable areas of Slovakia are chosen for growing sugar beet. They are mostly the following types of soils: Chernozem (39.3 %), Haplic Luvisols (21.0 %), Molic Fluvisols (17.3 %), and Fluvisol (18.6 %), which are sandy loamy and loamy (79.6 %), deep (94.6 %), non gravelly (92.8 %) and in lowland (79.1 %). Accuracy of the land selection is confirmed by the fact, that the real area under crop presented soils for growing of sugar beet very suitable 57.2 % and suitable 33.7 % during 2008_2012. Up to 73.7 % of sugar beet areas are in maize production area and 26.3 % occur in turnip production area.