CROP ROTATION AS A FACTOR OF RAISING FARMLAND PRODUCTIVITY AND PRESERVING SOIL FERTILITY IN THE FOREST-STEPPE ZONE OF MIDDLE VOLGA AREA
In traditional farming the problem of maintaining soil fertility is an urgent task. In the conditions of sharp decline of investment to improve soil fertility, the methods of intensification of the biological factors involving the use of organic fertilizers, plowing straw, the saturation of crop rotation with perennial grasses, replacement of bare fallow by full fallow and green manure, planting cover crops, etc. are of great importance. Effective solution of these problems is possible only in the conditions of long-term stationary experiments on the basis of field crop rotations. The article presents recommendations for the improvement of crop rotation as a key element of adaptive-landscape systems of farming. Comparative assessment of efficiency of using biological methods of reproduction of soil fertility in various types of crop rotation is shown in the article. Their productivity is shown on leached black soil of forest-steppe zone of Middle Volga region. Long-term study of various types of field crop rotations has led to the conclusion about the possibility of stabilization of soil fertility and enhancing productivity of crop rotations by saturating their intermediate green manuring with the help of green manure fallow and perennial grasses.