Abstract
In the agricultural Altai Krai in Russian Siberia, soil degradation problems are prevalent. Agronomists recommend “reduced tillage systems,” especially no-till, as a sustainable way to cultivate land that is threatened by soil degradation. In the Altai Krai, less is known about the technologies in practice. In this paper, we provide information on plant cultivation technologies used in the Altai Krai and on selected factors preventing farm managers in this region from adopting no-till technology based on our own quantitative survey conducted across 107 farms in 2015 and 2016. The results of the quantitative survey show that farm managers have high uncertainty regarding the use of no-till technology including its economics. To close this gap, we provide systematic analysis of factors influencing the economy of the plant production systems by using a farm optimization model (linear programming) for a real farm, together with expert estimations. The farm-specific results of the optimization model show that under optimal management and climatic conditions, the expert Modern Canadian no-till technology outperforms the farm min-till technology, but this is not the case for suboptimal conditions with lower yields.
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Notes
The farmer starts to collect peas on the August 5, wheat on the August 15, and soya beans on the October 15. In total, the harvest takes 45 days.
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the KULUNDA project, part of the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) research program “Sustainable Land Management,” which allowed this research to be completed.
The authors would like to thank Dr. Tobias Meinel (from the agricultural machinery manufacturer Amazone in Kazakhstan and Russia) as well as Prof. Belayev (from the Farm Mechanization Department at the Agrarian University in Barnaul) for their valuable estimations. Without their knowledge input, this analysis would not have been possible. Furthermore, we would like to thank the farmer who was always cooperative and who provided us with detailed information about his farm.
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Bavorova, M., Imamverdiyev, N. & Ponkina, E. Farm-level economics of innovative tillage technologies: the case of no-till in the Altai Krai in Russian Siberia. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 1016–1032 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-9268-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-9268-y