The idle lands of the Non-Chernozem zone of Russia are quickly overgrown with tree and shrubby vegetation (TSV). Their active development under modern conditions needs a comprehensive justification of the available technological options for removal and processing of TSV. To evaluate their agro-economic efficiency, a comprehensive study was carried out at Sofia LLC in the Tosnensky District of the Leningrad Region. Its methodological basis was model-field and production experiments, laid out in weakly and medium-cultivated sod-podzolic gleyey soils of heavy loamy granulometric composition. They studied the agroeconomic efficiency of application of traditional ameliorants (milled raw dolomite and poultry manure supplemented with potassium fertilizer) and TSV processing products (wood chips, wood chaff, biochar and ash). The study determined the negative impact of products of TSV processing embedded in the soil on crops; the lack of a direct correlation between agroecological and economic efficiency of development technologies; an irreplaceable positive role of a complex of chemical ameliorants. The level of profitability of its use varied in experiments from 7–15 % for cultures and varieties undemanding of fertility to 48–56 % for demanding ones. On its basis, radical improvement of the soil properties was ensured, which made it possible to increase the productivity of the crop rotation link against the background of the embedded wood chips from 13.3 to 19 tons of forage units (FU) per hectare, of wood chaff – from 10.5 to 19.2 t FU/ha, biochar – from 16.1 to 21.4 t FU/ha, ash – from 15.6 to 21.2 t FU/ha while improving product quality.
The profitability parameters of technologies for the development of the shrubby idle land based on the data on the cost of yield increase (21–52 %) are 8.8–9.1 times lower than for the additionally produced and sold dairy products (191–459 %). Due to our production and direct sale of high-quality dairy products, the average annual net income from the development of 1 hectare of lightly and heavily shrubby idle land increases from 21 to 205.7 thousand roubles and from 9.7 to 80.5 thousand roubles respectively. With the re-processing of TSV to Eurowood, these indicators increase by 159.2 thousand roubles/ha per year.
Due to the relatively high cost of biochar production, the «biochar + complex of ameliorants» option, the best in terms of agronomic and environmental efficiency, is significantly (1.7 times) inferior to agronomically less efficient technologies in short-term studies in terms of profitability (132 % versus 230 %). Less efficient technologies include embedding of crushed TSV in the soil with modern milling machines. The full payback period of biochar technology when calculating income for feed is 3.1 years, for milk and dairy products – 1.3 years.
Economic feasibility of obtaining wood phytomass through accelerated cultivation of pine wood on postagrogenic lands
