Agriculture of the Kursk oblast: trajectory of unsustainable development

Abstract

Changes in the structure and territorial organization of agriculture of the Kursk region in the process of its adaptation to post-Soviet economic conditions are revealed. In the crisis 1990s, a strong decline in agricultural production was accompanied by a polarization of the territory into islands of relative prosperity in areas with better land and around large, economically successful industrial enterprises, on the one hand, and the northwestern periphery, characterized by degradation of agricultural production and renaturalization of agricultural landscapes, on the other. The recovery growth of agriculture that began in the 2010s has led to a new spatial structuring – the concentration of livestock in certain places during the selective development of agricultural land by agricultural holdings in the region. This deter- mines a high degree of territorial differentiation of scale, specialization, structure and technical equip- ment of regional farms. Multiple differences between the regions in the provision of farms equipment, the level of fertilization, the role of farms of different categories have been revealed. The center of the region has lost its leading position in agricultural production. Positive agricultural dynamics is accompanied by negative ecological processes: insufficient level of fertilization, monoculture in agriculture, deterioration of the structure of sown areas, poor utilization of increasing waste of livestock complexes. The modern agricultural specialization of the districts of the Kursk region and their characteristic agro- ecological problems are established.