recent years are not added, and crop production is formed mainly due to the residual
reserves in the soil of nutrients and mineralization of humus, so that its content is
reduced, the soils gradually get worse, depleted and degraded. This requires an urgent
response of agricultural producers, because if it is impossible to restore the spent
resources, the degradation processes become irreversible [2,3].
So, modern agricultural use of land requires the development and justification of
agricultural and reclamation activities aimed at the preservation and reproduction of
soil fertility. This leads to the need for research to predict changes in quantitative and
qualitative indicators of natural factors of fertility, patterns of direction and speed of
soil processes. It is necessary to effectively and continuously monitor the state of soil
fertility, the degree of its erosion, the reaction of the environment, the salt regime of
the soil. Recently, such processes as soil contamination with heavy metals,
radionuclides, pesticides and other toxicants have also caused concern [4]. Depending
on the intensity of land use, including irrigation, soil fertility and the environmental
situation in general change.
The most cheap, affordable and cost-effective way of addressing improvement of
soil fertility and increasing crop yields is the introduction into production of science-
based crop rotations, which due to plaintive-root residues enrich the soil with organic
matter, and in case of the selection of legumes it is also free source biological nitrogen.
Reasonable alternation of crops improves water and nutrient regimes of the soil,
reduces contamination of fields, the presence of pests and pathogens, that is, it
contributes to the preservation of ecological balance and rational use of agricultural
land [5].
Unfortunately, in recent years, the structure of crop rotations is significantly
violated. Thus, during the period 1990-2015 in Ukraine there was a redistribution of
acreage under crops, in particular: acreage of forage crops decreased by 4.6 times,
which adversely affected the development of forage and livestock industry. During this
period, the area under crops of highly profitable export – oriented crops has increased
significantly: sunflower – by 2.8 times, rapeseed – by more than ten times, which
violates the system of crop rotation and leads to complete depletion of the soil cover
and its drying. On the contrary, the acreage under potatoes and vegetables and melons
decreased by 5%; now they are concentrated mainly in the private sector.
The main problems of the crop industry, in our opinion, are related to:
- expansion of acreage for cultivation of soil crops-sunflower and rapeseed;
- reduction of crops of fodder group, including perennial grasses, in particular
alfalfa, individual cereals (millet, buckwheat), legumes and sugar beet;
- low yield of crops compared to other countries in which their high productivity
provides the use of modern innovative and resource-saving technologies;
- concentration of production of fruits and vegetables in households that do not
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