Agrarian nature management in Russian regions: Ecological and resource dissonance

Abstract

This article considers the ecological consequences of the transformation of agricultural nature management in post-Soviet Russia in a regional context. It has been revealed that approximately half the regions have changed their specialization from livestock farming to crop growing. The regional indices (1990–2014) of agricultural production and indices of resources being utilized (cultivated areas, livestock population, and fertilizer utilization) have been compared. The phenomenon of ecological and resource dissonance in agriculture, which leads to degradation of agrolandscapes, has been revealed. It has been established that the more successful the development of regional agriculture is, the higher the resource and ecological dissonance. Two groups of regions that differ by diametrically opposite ecological trajectories have been distinguished: (1) regions with accelerated agricultural simplification, where changes in regional climatic characteristics can be expected; (2) Central Chernozem regions, in which excessive utilization of agrolandscapes threatens their accelerated ecological degradation.