The Management of Soil Fertility and Productivity of Agrocenoses in Adaptive-Landscape Farming Systems

Abstract

The natural and artificial fertility of soils and the productivity of agrocenoses can be considered the ecological and socioeconomic functions of soils and agrolandscapes. In adaptive-landscape farming systems (ALFSs), they are regulated via elimination of limiting conditions or adaptation to them. ALFSs are constructed on the basis of mathematical models describing the interaction of farming practices and the environmental factors studied in multifactor field experiments. Long-term stationary studies organized by the author in different subzones of Western Siberia have proved the possibility to reduce the area under bare fallow and to apply crop rotation systems without the fallow stage in the forest-steppe zone; soil mulching and minimization of tillage operations can be efficient in the case of application of mineral fertilizers and soil amendments. Minimization of the tillage of chernozems has led to a decrease in the loss of humus, nitrogen mineralization, and CO₂ emissions from the soil surface. Possibilities and conditions of direct seeding practices in this zone are also considered. The role of mineral fertilizers as an indispensable factor of ALFSs and the most important condition for the environmental optimization of nature management is substantiated.