Resource information
Land resources are the basis of economic and territorial development of any country. Land reform in the Russian Federation started in 1990−1991, its goal was to solve a wide range of issues in the field of agriculture, the formation and development of local government, housing construction, and ecology. At the same time, social and economic transformations were carried out, private ownership of land and payment for land use was introduced, and the development of the land market was stimulated. Now more than 25 years have passed since the beginning of the land reform and it is possible to sum up some of its results. The studied region − Samara region − is located in the southeast of the European territory of Russia in the chernozem zone, therefore the agricultural land is predominant in the land stock and the main part of the territory is occupied by agrolandscapes. The purpose of this article is to analyse the changes in agrolandscapes of the Samara region for the post-Soviet period as one of the results of the land reform. A significant decrease in the fertility of agrolandscapes soil was noted. There was a decrease in humus reserves in the arable horizon, which is associated with decline in the cropping culture, the prevalence of extensive management practices, and, consequently, a decrease in the amount of organic and mineral fertilizers used. The annual loss of humus in the region is 0.4 t / ha. The areas of waterlogged soils causing delays in land treatment have significantly increased (by 9506 ha). The area of secondary saline land decreased due to the reduction of irrigated land and the area of disturbed land − due to lack of land reclamation. Due to the development of pipeline transport and oil-extracting industries in the region, in many areas there is land contaminated with oil products. The causes of negative processes in agrolandscapes are studied and measures for solving identified problems are proposed.
