Scientists of FSBSI “Tatar Science and Research Institute for Agriculture” about liming of acidic soils

The Republic of Tatarstan is situated in the north and middle parts of the forest-steppe zone, as well as in the south part of the taiga-forest zone of the European territory of Russia. Thus, it has a number of specific peculiarities for soils, which predetermines the need for a special approach to a lot of questions concerning chemicalization of farming, as specialists of FSBSI “Tatar Science and Research Institute for Agriculture” note.

The basic zonal types of soils in Tatarstan are soddy-podzolic and gray forest soils, as well as podzolized and leached chernozem. Soddy-podzolic and gray forest soils occupy about 2,201,000 ha, podzolized and leached chernozem occupies 1,308,000 ha. There are 1,364,200 ha of acidic soils in Tatarstan.

Overacidic soils are a limiting factor to fertility, as a result of which Tatarstan receive output yield less than its due every year. In this regard, it is necessary to organize liming of acidic soils. This procedure makes for soil application of lime fertilizers with the aim to eliminate acidity, which is harmful for many agricultural crops. Liming of soils is based on substitution of H-particles and aluminum ions to calcium and magnesium ions in the soil adsorption complex. Owing to this the activity of beneficial microorganisms intensifies, soils get rich with mineral elements necessary for plants, physical characteristics of soils improve, efficiency of organic and mineral fertilizers increase.

The role of liming of acidic soils increases as a result of the shift to intensive systems of farming, where the main agricultural crops are wheat, corn, sugar beetroot, pea, etc. However, it is impossible to get rich yield of theses crops without fertilizers.

Fertilizer application rates depend on the soil acidity, its aggregate-size distribution, as well as crop peculiarities. Lime fertilizers are usually applied once a crop rotation, in the summer or autumn, after that soil is tilled properly. To hold a scheduled liming of soils, examination and files experiments are carried out, maps of acidic soils and liming are created.