Environmental and Economic Assessment of Agricultural Land Degradation in the Central and Western Zones of the Republic of Tyva

摘要

The presented ecological and economic assessment of agricultural land in the Republic of Tyva was developed taking into account the theoretical foundations of the economic assessment of the cost of land and the methods for valuation of environmentally significant factors. According to the agricultural and natural-economic zoning of the East Siberian region, the Republic of Tyva is assigned to the steppe sheep-breeding and cattle-breeding zone. For the purpose of a more rational distribution and scientifically based specialization of agricultural production, the territory of Tuva is divided into four agricultural zones (Economics of the Tuva ASSR, 1973). The agricultural lands of the study area are included in the Central agricultural zone, mainly agricultural subtaiga, livestock-grain steppe and in the mainly livestock-grain Western agricultural zone. These are the largest, developed and densely populated parts of the republic, where most of the arable land, two-thirds of the hayfields and pastures, and more than 80% of the population of the republic are concentrated. Territories of agricultural lands are located within the dry-steppe, steppe and forest-steppe natural and climatic zones. The climate is characterized by the highest degree of aridity. The main types of soils on arable land are chestnut sandy loamy soils that are subject to wind erosion (60%), chernozems (23%), and alluvial soddy soils (15%). The performed assessment shows that the total damage from soil degradation for the Central and Western agricultural zones of the republic is estimated at more than 3.5 bln rubles, which is about one-third of the cost of agricultural land of the republic. A decrease in the cost of land for the period from 2012 to 2017 was revealed for the Tandinskii (54.1%) and Chedi-Kholskii districts (47.2%), which is due to soil degradation.