Efficiency of the Erosion Protection Methods Involving Biologizing Agriculture in the Steppe and Forest-steppe Areas of Cultivated Land in Siberia

Abstract

The research has been carried in the steppe zone of the Minusinsk Hollow and forest-steppe of the Altai Ob Region. The paper presents the results of studying the efficiency of erosion protection methods using biologizing agriculture and technologies of soil treatment. The authors have analyzed long-term data provided by numerous research institutions located in different agro-ecological conditions in the forest-steppe and steppe areas of cultivated land. Long-term field experiments carried out to study and make a comparative analysis of soil treatment technologies in green manure fallows have shown different soil conservation efficiencies in various soil climatic conditions of the Middle Siberia. In the steppe area of cultivated land, in the case of erosion-hazard soil, it is worth using stubble mulch tillage treatment, which allows preserving plant residues on the soil surface in order to increase the soil protection efficiency of green manure fallows. After this type of treatment no removal of fine soil by wind was observed on black soil, while in the case of tillage the soil removal amounts to 2,5 - 8,1 tons per hectare per year. In the steppe area on slope lands, winter stubble residues allow one to completely prevent the soil wash out in spring. The number of days with dust storms after the Virgin Lands Campaign in Khakassia in 1961 – 1965 amounted to 5 – 13. At present, with the decreased areas of strongly eroded plough land and increased volume of fallow land, dust storms do not occur. A fallow grown crop (summer planted oats) and, on the slope lands, mulching with rape completely prevented the spring wash out. The grain yield from a hectare of the crop rotation area in the case of sweet clover tillage and stubble mulch plowing was almost the same: 1,64 and 1,76 tons per hectare, respectively. Treatment of the deposit land followed by spraying with Tornado herbicide in August reduces soil erosion 2.2 times compared to its introduction in June.