STUDIES ON THE SOIL FERTILITY CHANGE IN THE STEPPE ZONE OF UKRAINE

Abstract

Soil productivity is determined by its fertility – an ability of the soil to meet the needs of plants in the elements of nutrition, moisture, air, as well as provision of the conditions for their normal live to obtain stable yields. Growth of the demand in provision of food leads to the need to increase the agricultural production on the basis of traditional agriculture, which prompts the use of additional natural and energetic resources. In addition, traditional agriculture is based on the use of mineral macroand micro fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, which is the main reason for the deterioration the ecological state of soils.Rational use of land resources in agricultural production, the development and effective use of comprehensive measures for the regulation and management of soil fertility is not possible without identifying their actual agroecological state, which is considered as a combination of agro-physical, physico-chemical, agrochemical and biological properties, and also soil contamination by heavy metals, radionuclides, pesticides and other toxicants.