IMPROVING DEGRADED AGRICULTURAL MOUNTAIN LANDSCAPES BY THE SLITTING METHOD

The article examines a laboratory sample of a maneuverable unit for slitting mountain meadows and pastures. Its design is adapted for work in a mountainous agricultural landscape with degraded soils having a slope of cultivated areas up to 15°. The study object is the structural, technological, operational, and agrotechnical parameters of the laboratory sample and the graphic-analytical rationalization of the working process of slitting on the slope. The technical tests of the laboratory model were carried out in Dargavs, RNO-Alania, at an altitude of 1540 meters above sea level with a slope steepness of up to 15°. The authors determined the indicators of test conditions and functional operation in accordance with GOST 33687-2016. The laboratory sample of a slitter (paraplow) mounted on the “Fenshaw-180” mini-tractor was adapted to a mountain zone with a reverse (obtuse) angle of penetration into the soil. The authors off er an optimal scheme for the arrangement of the working tools of the slitter. They determined the technology of its traveling along the slope and the design of the working tools providing the distance between the slits of 1000 ± 5 mm, the slitting depth of 200…220 mm, the slit width of 10…30 mm ± 5 mm. The considered sample of the unit for slitting mountain meadows and pastures will improve the moisture and air supply of the lower soil layers; reduce the degradation processes of slope areas, increase labor productivity, environmental sustainability, and grassland farming effi ciency.