Comparative analysis of rape seed production in Russia and Kemerovsk region

The purpose of the research is to conduct a comparative analysis of rapeseed production in the territory of the Russian Federation and the Kemerovo region. During 2011-2019, on the territory of the Russian Federation (RF) and the Kemerovo region, a comparative analysis of the sown area, yield, gross harvest of spring rape was carried out. The research results showed that over the past 9 years, from 2011 to 2019, the sown area, both in the Russian Federation and in the Kemerovo Region, has doubled. At the same time, there is a strong variation in this indicator. The variation coefficient ranged from 43.3% to 54.1%. On the territory of the Russian Federation and in the Kemerovo region, an increase in the yield of spring rape is observed by 1.13 times and 1.04 times, respectively. It was revealed that an increase in the gross harvest of spring rape seeds occurs on the basis of an extensive development of production due to an increase in the sowing area and yield.

Weed control of maize (Zea mays L.) in university farming

Purpose. Regarding the area of maize in Hungary, we can state that it is one of the largest crops grown in the area. Maize was grown on 1,048,070 hectares in Hungary in 2019. The purchase price depends, among other things, on the size of the sown area and the yields, but many other things can also have an impact in either a positive or negative direction. In recent years, the purchase price of maize has been around HUF 50,000/tonne. Maize is one of the heat-demanding plants that needs 500 mm of rainfall during its growing season to develop smoothly. The expected yield is significantly influenced by the type of soil grown. Meadow chernozem and brown forest soil are the most favorable for maize. Methods. The maize was sown on April 17, 2020. In the experimental area were selected 5 squares. A square has a floor area of 4 m2. In the research area were conducted three weed surveys. The dates were: May 18, June 22, and July 29, 2020. The following herbicides were released on 15th May: Sulcotrek (sulcotrione and terbuthylazine); Tegoplant (trisiloxane); Trend (adjuvant). Results. The area was harvested on 21 September by a combine harvester equipped with a corn tube breaker adapter. From an area of one hectare, 9.4 tons of crops were harvested with a moisture content of 14%. Conclusions. In the case of chemical weed control, it is recommended to use an agent or combination which is specifically aimed at reducing unwanted, in this case pine sorghum.

Trends in crop production as a factor of ensuring food security of the Perm Region

Goal. The assessment of the main trends in the activity of agricultural producers in crop production was carried out in order to substantiate the possibilities of the Perm Region for self-sufficiency with the main types of food resources in the presence of adverse effects of natural and climatic conditions. Methods. A statistical analysis was carried out using grouping and comparison methods based on the official statistics of the Perm Region for 2016-2020. Results. In accordance with the social and geographical specifics of the Perm Region, on the territory of which rural areas predominate, the largest volume of crop production is produced in the households of the population (up to 58 %), whose activities are characterized by the lowest level of stability and are more susceptible to the negative impact of natural and climatic conditions. The activity of agricultural organizations (share up to 36 %) and farms (share up to 8 %) is more stable. A higher level of dependence on natural and climatic conditions was revealed in the field of potato production, a lower level – in the field of grain and vegetables production of protected soil. The risk is reinforced by the fact that up to 70 % of the natural volume of potatoes and more than 80% of vegetables are produced in households. With a decrease in the total sown area by 1.2 %, there is a decrease in the sown area of potatoes by 15 % and vegetables by 6 %. The identified trends allowed us to identify the risk of reducing the level of food self-sufficiency of the Perm Region with potatoes and vegetables. The insecurity of domestic potato consumption in the Perm Region is, according to preliminary data, 13 % in 2020. The presence of risk was also revealed for vegetables, the internal consumption of the region was provided with vegetable products of its own production by an average of 56% during the study period. The results obtained allow us to identify the directions of optimization of the Perm Region strategy in solving the problems of food self-sufficiency. Scientific novelty. The dynamics of factors of crop production (structure, yield, acreage, intensification) is assessed taking into account the social, geographical, natural and climatic specifics of the Perm Region through the prism of the impact on the regional food balance and the level of self-sufficiency of the region with potatoes and vegetables.

Agroecological Bases of Sustainable Development Strategy for the Rural United Territorial Communities of the Western Polissya Region

The article considers the influence of agroecological indicators on the sustainable development of the rural united territorial communities of the Western Polissya region (Ukraine) based on the current state analysis of crop production. To study the state of crop production and determine its role in the development of rural areas of the Western Polissya region, the authors used their field research, as well as data from the Main Departments of Statistics in Rivne and Volyn regions, the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, statistical collection “Crop Production of Ukraine” (2018). The following methods were applied throughout the research process: system analysis, comparison, graphical and statistical methods. The development of crop production was assessed taking into account the dynamics of the following indicators: sown areas of crops (thousand hectares), production volume (gross harvest) of crops (thousand centners), crop yields (thousand hectares-1), sown areas of crops in enterprises and households on the territory of the Western Polissya region in terms of Rivne and Volyn regions for the period from 1995 to 2019. During the study period, changes in the ratio of areas between different crops were discovered: a decrease in the sown area of sugar beet, fruit and berry crops, cereals and legumes, and an increase in sunflower, vegetable crops, etc. An increase in crop yields and a slight decrease in gross harvest were established only for sugar beet in the two regions and fruit and berry crops in the Volyn region. In the region, 51.6% of the sown area of crops is accounted for by households that supply the market with products included in the consumer basket of ordinary citizens: roots and tubers, vegetables, and melons. Enterprises are focused on growing profitable crops (technical, grain, and legumes) for export

Optimization of economic and ecological components of using agricultural lands for balansed land use and rural areas development

The study is devoted to solving a topical problem related to the deterioration of land quality in Ukraine and in many countries around the world. This article proposes the use of economic and mathematical modelling to optimize the structure of sown areas of crops on the example of the whole of Ukraine in the direction of ensuring the balance of humus in the soil depending on the influence of a number of environmental and economic factors. The formation of the economic and mathematical model was the basis of the research methodology in this work. Based on the use of a systematic approach to assessing the effectiveness of the agricultural land use system, a number of environmental and economic indicators were selected and three groups of restrictions in the field of intensification of agricultural land use were formed. The applied approach made it possible to develop a task to optimize the sown area of crops in order to preserve the quality of land. The results of solving the formed problem showed the need to limit the sown area under crops, the cultivation of which leads to the loss of humus in the soil; in particular, it is proposed to limit the sown area under sunflower. The results of the study allowed us to draw the following conclusions: a positive effect on the quality of soils from the cultivation of annual and perennial grasses was established, which requires an increase in sown areas under these crops; promising indicators for achieving a deficit-free balance of humus in soils during the cultivation of crops have been identified; an algorithm for choosing solutions to ensure balanced use of agricultural land in the agricultural sector has been developed that the presented procedure for choosing solutions will increase the environmental and economic efficiency of agricultural land use; it is established that for the realization of certain goals in the system of land use, the decisive importance should be given to the consideration and coordination of environmental, economic and social interests.

Potential Areas in Poland for Forestry Plantation

Plantations have many advantages when compared to natural or semi-natural forests, such as shortening production cycles, the production of wood with specific characteristics, and near-market production concentrations. The intensive development of this form of industrial wood production is practiced all over the world. The wood industry in Poland struggles in recent years, with a large shortage of wood. The deficit of wood has been accumulated for several years and is steadily increasing. One of the possibilities to change this trend can be development of fast-growing trees plantations. The main aim of this study was to determine the potential of land in Poland, which could be used for the cultivation of fast-growing trees plantations. The analyses took into account the area and marginal agricultural land. The potential plantation land areas were determined for poplar cultivar “Hybrid 275” and European larch (Larix decidua Mill.). The results show a possibility to generate a considerable area that can be developed into plantations of fast-growing trees in Poland. According to the analyses carried out for the purpose of this study, with only 5% use of the sown area and 5% use of forest lands, as well as the boscage (wooded land and bushy land), it is possible to obtain approximately 0.6 MM ha of land for fast-growing tree plantations. In the case of planting 50% of these lands with larch and 50% with poplar, and if a 50% capacity of the plantation is assumed, it will be possible to obtain nearly 6 MM m3 of wood per year.

STUDY OF CHANGES IN THE CULTIVATION AREA, IRRIGATED AREA, PRODUCTION & PRODUCTIVITY OF DIFFERENT CROPS IN THE STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH

India is one of the largest producers of food grains in the world. One of the major contributors to this achievement is the state of Uttar Pradesh. The state has seen significant contributions coming in due to focus of governments and farmers on it.Other factor is the huge demand for cereals in the global market that is creating an excellent environment for the export of Indian cereal & food grains. All food grain types have seen significant changes in their area of cultivation to coverage under irrigated area. Increase in sown area also has led to increase in production. Additionally, good farming practices, availability of irrigation water have contributed largely to increase in average yield of most of the food grains in the state for the period under study. Increase in sown area, it seems has also been driven by opportunity to increase earnings of farmers. This study has covered primarily, area of production, irrigated area, absolute production, and average yield of various crops which are cultivated in the state of Uttar Pradesh for the period from 2006-07 to 2012-13.

Impact of Grain Subsidy Reform on the Land Use of Smallholder Farms: Evidence from Huang-Huai-Hai Plain in China

Smallholder farms have played an essential role in agricultural production and food security. In order to increase farm size, the Chinese government announced a reform of the grain subsidy program in 2015. Under the reform, 20% of the aggregate input subsidy, as well as the pilot subsidy to large-scale farmers and the incremental part of the agricultural support and protection subsidy budget, were used to support increasing farm size. This study evaluated the impact of China’s grain subsidy reform on the land use of smallholder farms to investigate whether the reform achieved its goal. Based on 2063 samples obtained from the 2013–2015 Survey for Agriculture and Village Economy data in Huang-Huai-Hai Plain, we conducted a difference-in-difference model to solve the problem of missing counterfactual states in policy evaluation. Farms from Henan and Shandong were assigned to the treatment group, and farms from Hebei were assigned to the control group. The results revealed that the average treatment effect on the treated of the impact of the grain subsidy reform on the wheat-sown area was −25% (0.10 ha). Furthermore, there was heterogeneity in regard to the subsidy reform effects in different sown-area groups. The reform had the most significant impact on the smallest farmers. We also found that China’s grain subsidy reform had a significant and positive effect on the amount of outflow land area, while the impact of subsidy reform on land tenure was insignificant. Our findings suggest that while encouraging large-scale farms, it is necessary to take into account farmers’ small-scale operations and gradually promote the transformation of small-scale operations to large-scale operations. The Chinese government should strengthen the supervision of land use to achieve the goal of ensuring food security.

AN INNOVATIVE COMPONENT IN GENERATING EFFICIENCY OF SUNFLOWER PRODUCTION

The introductory part emphasizes that since 2004, Ukrainian agriculture has gradually begun to crank up production. This is largely associated with the growth of crop production, including sunflower. During 2004–2020, gross sunflower yield increased by 3.1 times, and yield capacity – more than double. Research methods involve grouping a complex of agricultural enterprises following the cost value per 1 ha of the sown area and sunflower yield. To classify the enterprises according to the level of innovative production, the authors have put forward a method for determining the coefficient of innovation. The object of the study comprises the agricultural enterprises of Kharkiv region. The results of grouping following yield rate have made it possible to establish a direct dependence between the cost value and sunflower yield. In a group of enterprises with an average yield of up to 15 centners/ha, costs amounted to 9653 UAH / ha; in a group with a yield of 25.1–30 centners/ha – 14860 UAH/ha; with a yield of more than 45 centners/ha – 27518 UAH/ha. It has also been found that an increase in the rate of sunflower yield by 1 centner leads to an average profit increase of 307.9 UAH/ha. The grouping of enterprises by the level of costs per 1 sown area of sunflower has made it possible to assume that the nature of the relationship of a grouping indicator with profit margin is characterized by a nonlinear function. It has been determined that this function has a maximum when the cost increases by 16960 UAH/ha and the amount of profit – by 6199 UAH/ha. The paper has also marked that under such cost value, the value of sunflower yield should be equal to 29.8 centners/ha. The practical approval of the methodological approach to determining the coefficient of innovative development of sunflower production has shown that this indicator objectively conveys the rate of use of innovations in the manufacturing process. Enterprises that had a coefficient of innovative development above 1 were characterized by a much higher level of yield, profitability, and production intensity.

Temporal and spatial evolution and obstacle diagnosis of resource and environment carrying capacity in the Loess Plateau

Natural resources are scarce in the Loess Plateau, and the ecological environment is fragile. Sustainable development requires special attention to resource and environmental carrying capacity (RECC). This study selected 24 representative cities in five natural areas of the Loess Plateau; used the entropy-weight-based TOPSIS method to evaluate and analyze the RECC of each city and region from 2013 to 2018; established a diagnosis model to identify the obstacle factors restricting the improvement of RECC; and constructed the theoretical framework of the RECC system mechanism. The results show that the RECC of the Loess Plateau is increasing in general but is relatively small. The environmental and social subsystems have the highest and lowest carrying capacities, respectively. There is an evident contradiction between economic development and the environment. Population density, investment in technological innovation, per capita sown area, and per capita water resources are the main obstacles affecting the improvement of RECC in the Loess Plateau. Such evaluations and diagnoses can support ecological civilization and sustainable development.