According to the Land Register of the Republic of Moldova on the 1st of January 2004 [1] the total area of the fields has constituted 3,38 million ha (72,7%), 2,53 million ha (74,9%) of agricultural fields, including arable fields – 1,84 million ha (72,7%), multiannual plantations – 297,9 thousands ha (11,9%), pasture and hay fields – 376,9 thousands ha (15,1%). In the Republic of Moldova, on the 1st of January 2004, there were 111 production cooperatives, 95 joint stock companies, 4 kolkhozes, 1188 limited liability companies, 558 thousands of farms, 44 cooperative farms. The average area of a limited liability company is 538 ha, a joint stock company – 496 ha, a cooperative farm – 239 ha, an equivalent part of a field of the owner – 1,49 ha.
The present state of the soil covering quality denotes that the fields with a high reliability note of 80-100 points occupy about 27% of the total area of agricultural fields [2]. On these high productivity soils, usually represented by the typical and levigated chernozems with a humus content higher than 3,6%, on the account of effective fertility 32-40 q/ha of winter wheat can be obtained. The second class of soil rating with 71-80 points occupies 21% or 536 thousand ha. The soil productivity of this class is also high enough and provides a harvest of 24-32 q/ha of winter wheat. The total soil area of these two soil raiting classes is 48%, or 1 million 225 thousand hectares. The soils of these two site evaluation classes are exposed to various degradation forms: dehumification, chemical, agrophysical and biological degradation.
The soils of III-VII rating classes with 70 points or less occupy 52% from the total area of agricultural fields and are low, moderated and hard degraded or damaged. The VIIth soil rating class contains the agricultural fields damaged and completely destroyed by ravenes and active earth flows with a surface of 178 thousand ha and a very low productivity.
According to the Land Register on the 1st of January 2003, the average soil rating of the whole republic has constituted only 64 points [3]. The soil effective fertility provides the formation of 25,6 q/ha of winter wheat. This average level of harvest was obtained for the republic for the recent 10 years and has constituted 27,6 q/ha, varying from 21.03-21.04 q/ha in 1996, 2000 up to 31,7-34,4 q/ha in 1995, 2001.
In the Moldovan conditions, the most important natural factor for the formation of high and constant harvests is the soil humidity (atmospheric precipitations).
The estimated calculations have showed that in a multiannual cycle the potential average harvest of the winetr wheat constitutes 53,6 q in the North zone, 44,9 q in the Central zone and 36,6 q/ha in the South zone. The difference of harvest obtained depending on the amount of precipitations and the soil rating note is higher and constitutes 13,0-26,4 q/ha of berries.
Nowadays, there are about 22 factors of soil degradation [5], but the erosion is the main factor of soil covering degradation in the Republic of Moldova. This type of degradation is manifested from old times as a natural process depended on the accidented relief and torrential rains.
The main reasons which contribute to the intensification of erosion processes together with the natural factors are: almost complete fallowing of the fields, thereby the part of arable fields is extremely large – 72,5%; soil cleaning on slopes and the reduction of their antierosion resistance; the great part of cultivating cultures in crop rotations; liquidation of the majority of protection forest bands for the recent 10-20 years; the distribution of lands during the privatization process, without a preventive antierosion organization of village fields, the distribution of lands on the hill-dale direction.
The damages caused by the erosion are immense. Annually, from the agricultural fields 26 million tones of fertile soil, 700 thousands of humus and a large amount of nutritive elements such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and others are lost. The silting level of those 2500 local aquatic basins because of erosion constitutes 30-90% [6].
The complex of measures and technologies regarding the conservation and the increase of eroded soils fertility includes: the antierosion organization of the territory; the formation of forest framing, including the protection curtains against the erosion provoked by waters and winds; recovering of the hardly eroded soils by grassing and foresting; settling ravenes and earth flows by regulating water drainages, their and limitary field grassing and foresting, cultivation of field cultures on slopes in bands; the formation of protection bands from perennial herbs; the implementation of antierosion crop rotations; the unconditioned apply of antierosion soil works on slopes, agrotechnical actions etc.
In 1966-1990, proportional works were performed regarding the amelioration of the soil: irrigation, draining, gypsum amend etc. The natural states of the Republic of Moldova places the irrigation in one of the essential tasks, especially in the South zone where the hydrothermic coefficient is 0,6-0,7.
In the 70-80th of the last century, a large amount of works concerning the amelioration of Alluvial soils was carried out. As a result, the ameliorative state of the Alluvial soils is the following [9]: good – 17%, satisfactory – 34%, unsatisfactory – 49%, or about 90 thousand ha. The prejudice caused by the processes of salinization and swamping the Alluvial soils respectively constitutes 42 and 9 million lei; totally 51 million lei, [5].
In the Republic of Moldova, especially in the North and Central zones, the soils with an excess of humidity are predominant (Humic Gley soils, marsh soil) on a surface of about 50 thousand ha.
Bibliography
- The Land Register of the Republic of Moldova on the 1st of January 2004. Chisinau, 2004.
- Vorobiov V.D. The quality (reliability note) of the soil covering of the Republic of Moldova. Soil and its fertility in a period of thousand years. Minsk 2001.
- The Land Register of the Republic of Moldova on the 1st of January 2003. Chisinau, 2003.
- The valorization complex program of bad lands and the increase of soil fertility. Part II. Increase of soil fertility. Chisinau, 2004.
- The National Complex Program of soil fertility increase. Chisinau, Pontos, 2001.
- Soil erosion. Chisinau, Pontos, 2001.
