Means of mechanization and technological methods for the restoration of degraded mountain agricultural landscapes

Abstract

Abstract. The authors present the results of R & D and new aggregates for improving degraded slope areas. The purpose of the study is to develop new systems of grassland management to increase soil fertility and accelerate the restoration of mountain areas. The object of the study is agricultural practices that increase the productivity of mountain phytocenoses with aggregates developed by the authors for the following operations: slitting, sowing grass seeds and applying mineral fertilizers. The tasks of the research included: to study the optimal distance between the springy stands of the chisel cultivator KCHG-2,4 and to assess the impact of the conducted agricultural practices on changing the floral composition of the grass stand, improving the plant nutrition regime and water-air regime, enriching the grass stands by seeding valuable grass species. The novelty of the technical solution is that new resource-saving methods have been developed to improve the phytocenosis of land using small-sized universal aggregates. The tests were carried out in the mountain zone of the RNO – Alania (Dargava basin, the stronghold of the SKNIIGPSH) at an altitude of 1540m above sea level in the south-eastern exposure with a slope steepness of up to 150. The pasture area is heavily degraded. The experimental section is divided into three repetitions. The width of each repetition is 2.4 m, the length is 10 m, the dividing strips are 1m, the side strips are 2.4 m. The total area of the experimental site located across the slope is 184.2 m2. Results. It was found that a higher yield for three years of observations was revealed in the variant with a distance between the slits of 1.5 m. In relation to the control variant, in the first year of observations, the increase in this variant was 8.9 c/ha of dry weight, and in the third year this indicator increased to 12.5 c/ha, while in the variant with slits after 1 m, this indicator was 5.2–6.7 c/ha, respectively, and at a distance of 2.4 m – 4.3–5.1 c/ha (42 % of the soil cover).