Economics of soil erosion: case study of Ukraine

Purpose. The main objective of this paper is (і) to determinate the economic loss due to crop productivity loss caused by soil erosion in Ukraine, and (іі) to present the results of the econometric modeling of soil erosion impact on the efficiency crop production at the regional and district level. Methodology / approach. This study uses the following methods: expert assessments and monographic (for the assessment of economic losses due to crop productivity loss from spreading soil erosion); graphical (for building three-dimensional graphs); econometric modeling (to develop a mathematical model of the dependence of the gross crop production and income from sales per 100 hectares from the share of eroded arable land in its total area and production costs in crop industry per 100 hectares); abstract-and-logical (for generalization of the research results). To solve the assigned tasks, linear and quadratic econometric models (production functions) were developed using a dataset (і) from 168 observations (on the example of Ukrainian regions for 2010–2016) and (ii) from 189 observations (on the example of districts of Kharkiv region for 2010–2016). This study was conducted in order to test the hypothesis that the increase in the area of eroded arable land has a negative effect on the gross output of crop production. Results. Our expert assessment of economic losses due to crop productivity loss from spread of soil erosion on agricultural land in Ukraine is 224 mln USD. The obtained results confirm the hypothesis about the negative relationship between gross crop output and the level of land erosion. The obtained data confirm that an increase in the area of eroded arable land by 1 % leads to a decrease in the gross output of crop production by 0.20 % per 100 hectares of agricultural land in total, and in the third group of the studied subjects (the share of eroded arable land in their total area is more than 50 %) – by 0.61 %, respectively. Originality / scientific novelty. For the first time, linear and nonlinear (quadratic) econometric models were developed, which made it possible to carry out quantitative assessment of the impact of the soil erosion and the financial support (production costs in crop industry) per hectare on the formation of the financial results (gross crop output and income) of business entities in Ukrainian agriculture. The provision on the economics of soil erosion was further developed in terms of expert assessment of losses from this type of degradation and confirmation of the effect of the economic law of diminishing returns, which should be taken into account when developing measures for sustainable land management. Practical value / implications. The main results of the study can be used for the development, substantiation and implementation of soil protection measures for the sustainable use of agricultural land and/or to informed decision-making at different levels of management concerning restoration of eroded land.

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SimPLE.ca: Simulator of productivity loss due to erosion for Canada

Canadian Journal of Soil Science ◽

10.4141/cjss07066 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 88 (3) ◽

pp. 365-376 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

E. Bremer ◽

K J Greer ◽

M. Black ◽

L. Townley-Smith ◽

S S Malhi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Soil Erosion ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Crop Yields ◽

Productivity Loss ◽

Field Studies ◽

Triticum Aestivum L ◽

Crop Productivity ◽

Available N ◽

Agricultural Regions ◽

The Impact

Robust and practical estimates of the impact of soil erosion on crop productivity are essential for developing and implementing appropriate solutions for soil erosion on agricultural land. The objective of this study was to develop a simple model which captured the most important relationships between topsoil erosion and productivity loss for major agricultural regions of Canada. The model was developed for spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and corn (Zea mays L.). Using annual time steps, maximum crop yields were reduced by soil erosion due to losses in available water-holding capacity, N-mineralization potential and available P. Using minimal input data, the model accounted for 56% of the variation in relative yields (fraction of non-eroded controls) determined in field studies using desurfacing or comparison plot methods. Key words: Available N and P, model, nutrients, productivity loss, simulator, soil erosion, soil properties, yield loss

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A Comparison of Approaches to Regional Land-Use Capability Analysis for Agricultural Land-Planning

Land ◽

10.3390/land10050458 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (5) ◽

pp. 458

Author(s):

Tara A. Ippolito ◽

Jeffrey E. Herrick ◽

Ekwe L. Dossa ◽

Maman Garba ◽

Mamadou Ouattara ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Use Planning ◽

Crop Production ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Arable Land ◽

Agricultural Activity ◽

Field Samples ◽

Agricultural Potential ◽

Fertility Data ◽

Using Data

Smallholder agriculture is a major source of income and food for developing nations. With more frequent drought and increasing scarcity of arable land, more accurate land-use planning tools are needed to allocate land resources to support regional agricultural activity. To address this need, we created Land Capability Classification (LCC) system maps using data from two digital soil maps, which were compared with measurements from 1305 field sites in the Dosso region of Niger. Based on these, we developed 250 m gridded maps of LCC values across the region. Across the region, land is severely limited for agricultural use because of low available water-holding capacity (AWC) that limits dry season agricultural potential, especially without irrigation, and requires more frequent irrigation where supplemental water is available. If the AWC limitation is removed in the LCC algorithm (i.e., simulating the use of sufficient irrigation or a much higher and more evenly distributed rainfall), the dominant limitations become less severe and more spatially varied. Finally, we used additional soil fertility data from the field samples to illustrate the value of collecting contemporary data for dynamic soil properties that are critical for crop production, including soil organic carbon, phosphorus and nitrogen.

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Optimizing Rotavator Design Towards Enhancing Agricultural Crop Productivity

International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering - 2 ◽

10.35940/ijrte.b1796.078219 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. 48-52

Keyword(s):

Crop Production ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Organic Fertilizer ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Crop Productivity ◽

Pigeon Pea ◽

Chemical Fertilizer ◽

Cost Ratio ◽

Agricultural Crop ◽

Seedbed Preparation

By continuous and rapid growth in industrialization as well as population, the agricultural lands are also becoming less and less continuously day by day which results in increase in the population of small land holders. In addition to this, because of continuous decreasing production the youth of the villages are also migrating in big cities for the employment, resulting decreasing manpower essential to perform various seedbed operations in the villages. Hence, it is the need of time for small farmers having small agricultural land and having less crop production to introduce the cost-effective farm mechanization so that they can improve production rate. Rotavator is the best option available to achieve this landmark as it is already proved that seedbed prepared by using rotavator gives highest benefit to cost ratio. For this experimental study the whole land of 9 acre area is divided into 18 plots of equal size in area. The combination of method of seedbed preparation and use of fertilizers were the preliminary criteria. The categories of fertilizer according to quantity are discussed earlier which are 50kg, 35kg and 65kg per acre respectively. The quantities of organic fertilizer used are 45kg and 60kg per acre of agricultural land for both seedbeds which are prepared manually and by using rotavator. The highest production of Pigeon Pea was obtained of 814kg was from the plot whose seedbed is prepared by using agricultural machine called rotavator and organic fertilizer; next highest production is obtained of 802 kg from the plot whose seedbed is prepared by using rotavator and the fertilizer used was chemical fertilizer. The minimum production of Pigeon Pea which is 690 kg was obtained in the plot whose seedbed was prepared manually and chemical fertilizer was used.

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Sourse degradation - global environmental problem

Visnyk of the Lviv University. Series Geography ◽

10.30970/vgg.2017.51.8738 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 63-70 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Myroslav Voloshchuk

Keyword(s):

Soil Degradation ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Arable Land ◽

Soil Layer ◽

Organic Fertilizers ◽

Economic Losses ◽

Complex Situation ◽

Erosion Processes ◽

Fertile Soil ◽

Catchment Areas

Based on generalization of literary sources, normative legal, stock materials and experimental data, the complex situation of soil degradation is highlighted. Different types and intensity of the manifestation of soil degradation, their distribution and characteristics are described. The threatening situation of manifestation of degradation processes in some regions of Ukraine is shown, among which soil erosion occupies the leading place. More than 4.5 million hectares are occupied by medium and strongly ground soils, including 68 thousand hectares completely lost their humus horizon. Particularly large areas of eroded soils are distributed on arable land in the Vinnytsia, Luhansk, Donetsk, Odesa, Chernivtsi and Ternopil regions, where the average annual ground wash is 24.5–27.8 t/ha with a tolerance of 2.5–3.7 t/ha. As a result of erosion processes from the total area of agricultural land, about 500 million tons of fertile soil layer is washed out on average annually, which contains about 24 million tons of humus, 0.96 million tons of nitrogen, 0.68 million tons of phosphorus and 9.4 million tons of potassium equivalent to 320–333 million tons of organic fertilizers, and ecological and economic losses due to erosion exceed 9 billion UAH. Flat soil was associated with linear erosion. The main indicators characterizing the degree of damage to land by linear erosion are the density of ravines, the distance and area between them, the slope, the properties of soils and rocks, the morphometric parameters of the ravines and their catchment areas. According to various estimates, the area of land affected by linear erosion in the country increases by 5–10 thousand ha annually. The effect of the ravines on the complete destruction of the land, deformation of the soil cover is highlighted. Information on various types of soil pollution by poison chemicals, industrial waste is given. According to the prediction of scientists in such a situation, 120–150 years on the planet can destroy the fertile soil layer. Key words: erosion, dehumidification, pollution, waterlogging, acidity, degraded land.

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Sediment Yield and Soil Loss Estimation Using GIS Based Soil Erosion Model: A Case Study in the MAN Catchment, Madhya Pradesh, India

Environmental Sciences Proceedings ◽

10.3390/ecas2021-10348 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 26

Author(s):

Manti Patil ◽

Radheshyam Patel ◽

Arnab Saha

Keyword(s):

Spatial Distribution ◽

Soil Erosion ◽

Soil Loss ◽

Crop Production ◽

Erosion Rate ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Reservoir Sedimentation ◽

Reservoir Water ◽

Slope Length ◽

Soil Erosion Rate

Soil erosion is one of the most critical environmental hazards of recent times. It broadly affects to agricultural land and reservoir sedimentation and its consequences are very harmful. In agricultural land, soil erosion affects the fertility of soil and its composition, crop production, soil quality and land quality, yield and crop quality, infiltration rate and water holding capacity, organic matter and plant nutrient and groundwater regimes. In reservoir sedimentation process the consequences of soil erosion process are reduction of the reservoir capacity, life of reservoir, water supply, power generation etc. Based on these two aspects, an attempt has been made to the present study utilizing Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) has been used in integration with remote sensing and GIS techniques to assess the spatial pattern of annual rate of soil erosion, average annual soil erosion rate and erosion prone areas in the MAN catchment. The RUSLE considers several factors such as rainfall, soil erodibility, slope length and steepness, land use and land cover and erosion control practice for soil erosion prediction. In the present study, it is found that average annual soil erosion rate for the MAN catchment is 13.01-tons/ha/year, which is higher than that of adopted and recommended values for the project. It has been found that 53% area of the MAN catchment has negligible soil erosion rate (less than 2-tons/ha/year). Its spatial distribution found on flat land of upper MAN catchment. It has been detected that 26% area of MAN catchment has moderate to extremely severe soil erosion rate (greater than 10-tons/ha/year). Its spatial distribution has been found on undulated topography of the middle MAN catchment. It is proposed to treat this area by catchment area treatment activity.

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Soil Erosion and Crop Productivity Loss in Palghar and Thane Districts of Maharashtra

Agropedology ◽

10.47114/j.agroped.2018.dec5 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 28 (2) ◽

Author(s):

S. V. Shejale ◽

◽

S. B. Nandgude ◽

S. S. Salunkhe ◽

M. A. Phadtare ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Soil Erosion ◽

Water Conservation ◽

Soil Loss ◽

Productivity Loss ◽

Research Work ◽

Crop Productivity ◽

Soil And Water Conservation ◽

Conservation Practice ◽

Conservation Measures ◽

Soil And Water

Present research work was carried out on soil erosion and crop productivity loss in Palghar and Thane districts. The study also describes tolerable soil loss and relationship between top-soil loss and yield loss. The estimated average annual soil loss was 40.45 t ha-1yr-1 before adoption of the soil and water conservation measures (by USLE method) and estimated average tolerable soil loss was 9.36 t ha-1 yr-1, for Palghar district. Similarly, for Thane district the estimated average annual soil loss and tolerable soil loss were found to be 35.89 t ha-1 yr-1 and 9.61 t ha-1 yr-1, respectively for Thane district. The estimated average conservation practice factor (P) factors were obtained as 0.32 for Palghar district and 0.30 for Thane district to bring the soil loss below the tolerable limit. After adoption of soil and water conservation measures, the estimated soil loss were 9.02 t ha-1 yr-1 and 9.38 t ha-1 yr-1 for Palghar and Thane districts, respectively.

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Spatiotemporal Analysis of Potential Impact of Soil Erosion on Maize and Groundnuts Yield in Northern Ghana

Journal of Applied Geospatial Information ◽

10.30871/jagi.v5i2.3271 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 486-493

Author(s):

Wilson Agyei Agyare ◽

Eliasu Salifu

Keyword(s):

Soil Erosion ◽

Water Conservation ◽

Arable Land ◽

Current Trend ◽

Spatiotemporal Analysis ◽

Crop Productivity ◽

Potential Effect ◽

Northern Ghana ◽

Erosion Rates ◽

North East

Abstract Soil erosion is a threat to the viability of arable land, which has a relationship with crop productivity. This study was carried out in the Northern, North-East and Savannah Regions of Ghana, which have a high agricultural potential. The study examined erosion-yield relationship by comparing estimated erosion rates with maize and groundnut yields in a GIS environment. The study also projected soil erosion and determined its potential effect on the yield of maize and groundnuts. The soil erosion rates were found to be 4.2 t ha-1y-1, 5.1 t ha-1y-1 and 7.1 t ha-1y-1 for the Northern, North-East and Savannah Regions respectively. Projections for the next 10 years showed that, soil erosion will averagely increase by about 12 %, which could reduce the yield of maize and groundnut by 21 % and 16 % respectively by the year 2031, should the current trend continue. The study also found out that crop (maize and groundnut) yield per land area is relatively lower in areas severely affected by soil erosion. Farmers in the study area and areas of similar ecology must be encouraged to adopt Soil and Water Conservation (SWC) strategies to enhance and sustain productivity.

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Assessment of NEWMAP Effects on Gully Erosion Control and Environmental Development over South East, Nigeria

Indian Journal of Environment Engineering ◽

10.54105/ijee.a1813.111221 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 11-17

Author(s):

Oyati E.N ◽

◽

Lawal A.F. ◽

Ojo O.J ◽

◽

...

Keyword(s):

Soil Erosion ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Erosion Control ◽

Monitoring And Evaluation ◽

Gully Erosion ◽

Flood Routing ◽

Economic Losses ◽

Diverse Range ◽

Study Region ◽

Periodic Monitoring

The potential impacts of gully erosion over South Eastern Nigeria are a worrisome scenario. It has resulted in the displacement of millions of habitats, agricultural, and economic losses. The result of the effect of Nigerian Erosion Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) monitoring and evaluation on the effect of gully erosion on economic development in this study has revealed a positive significant influence at P < 0.05 over the study region. Also, it is revealed that NEWMAP programmes have significantly covered some constructions of hydraulic structures for flood routing and soil erosion control in South East, Nigeria. This intervention has significantly reduced the rate of land degradation occasioned by soil erosion, protection of watershed and agricultural land, which has thus been responsible for improved agricultural production. In conclusion, it is imperative to conduct periodic monitoring and evaluation of the activities of NEWMAP to building a strong evidence-based mechanism that enhances assessment of the diverse range of intervention projects on the dwellers of South-East extraction.

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Integration of Abandoned Lands in Sustainable Agriculture: The Case of Terraced Landscape Re-Cultivation in Mediterranean Island Conditions

Land ◽

10.3390/land10050457 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (5) ◽

pp. 457

Author(s):

Michalia Sakellariou ◽

Basil E. Psiloglou ◽

Christos Giannakopoulos ◽

Photini V. Mylona

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Crop Production ◽

Local Community ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Arable Land ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

Climate Data ◽

Local Climate ◽

Rainfed Farming ◽

Smart Agriculture

Agriculture terraces constitute a significant element of the Mediterranean landscape, enabling crop production on steep slopes while protecting land from desertification. Despite their ecological and historical value, terrace cultivation is threatened by climate change leading to abandonment and further marginalization of arable land imposing serious environmental and community hazards. Re-cultivation of terraced landscapes could be an alternative strategy to mitigate the climate change impacts in areas of high vulnerability encouraging a sustainable agroecosystem to ensure food security, rural development and restrain land desertification. The article presents the case study of abandoned terrace re-cultivation in the Aegean Island of Andros, using a climate smart agriculture system, which involves the establishment of an extensive meteorological network to monitor the local climate and hydrometeorological forecasting. Along with terrace site mapping and soil profiling the perfomance of cereal and legume crops was assessed in a low-input agriculture system. The implementation of a land stewardship (LS) plan was indispensable to overcome mainly land fragmentation issues and to transfer know-how. It was found that climate data are key drivers for crop cultivation and production in the island rainfed farming system. The study revealed that terrace soil quality could be improved through cultivation to support food safety and stall land degradation. In line with global studies this research suggest that cultivation of marginal terraced land is timely through a climate smart agriculture system as a holistic approach to improve land quality and serve as means to combat climate change impacts. The study also discusses land management and policy approaches to address the issue of agricultural land abandonment and the benefits gained through cultivation to the local community, economy and environment protection and sustainability.

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