INTRODUCTION

Ecological and economic assessment of land degradation is a new developing area at the intersection of natural and economic sciences. Land degradation is a global problem that leads to consequences such as the decline in the gross domestic product of countries, the deterioration of the economic situation of the local population, the decline in food security, climate change, and loss of biodiversity (Lee et al., 2014). Fundamental studies of land degradation in Russia are the subject of many works by employees of the V.V. Dokuchaev Soil Institute (Sobolev, 1948, 1970; Bazilevich and Pankova, 1967; Nauchnye osnovy …, 2013; Karmanov and Bulgakov, 2012; Yakovlev et al., 2016). Research on the development of methods for the environmental and economic valuation of land in the country has been carried out for more than 20 years, and at present there are more than 10 methods of land valuation within the framework of three approaches adopted in international practice: comparative, cost and profit approaches (Otsenka …, 1999; Kust, 2020). The basis for economic methods of land management is the cadastral value, which is determined in the course of the state cadastral valuation of agricultural land by capitalizing the estimated rental income. Depending on the impact of various types of environmental factors in Russia, there are various methods for assessing damage. To make the ecological and economic assessment of the degradation of agricultural lands in the republic, we used the “Metodika opredeleniya razmerov ushcherba ot degradatsii pochv i zemel’” (1994).

The goal of this study was an ecological and economic assessment of agricultural lands in the Central and Western agricultural zones of the Republic of Tyva, taking into account their degradation and environmental damage.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Tuva is a mountainous country with altitude fluctuations from 520 to 3970 m a.s.l. BS, as a result of which there is a large landscape heterogeneity of the territory. According to the predominance of certain landscapes, the territory of Tuva belongs to two latitudinal geographical zones of Eurasia: taiga-forest and steppe zones (Nosin, 1963). The manifestation of latitudinal zonality is expressed in intermountain basins located at approximately the same hypsometric levels. Due to the same zonal-climatic reasons, various series of vertical natural zones are created on the mountains.

The object of the study is the agricultural land of the Republic of Tyva. According to the grouping of regions and farms of Tuva by similar natural and economic conditions (Soldatov, 1967), the studied areas of agricultural land are included in the Central zone, mainly agricultural subtaiga, livestock-grain steppe, as well as mainly livestock-grain Western zone (Fig. 1). The zones are located mainly in the Central Tuva Basin that is the most extensive of the intermountain basins of Tuva with a predominance of plain, hilly, low-mountain relief elements, including low foothills along the edges of the basin. Territories of agricultural lands are located within the dry-steppe, steppe and forest-steppe natural and climatic zones. The climate is characterized by the highest degree of contrast: winters with little snow, hot and dry summers, and a large amplitude of absolute and daily temperatures are characteristic features of the climate of the basin (Agroklimaticheskie resursy …, 1974; Table 1).

Fig. 1.
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The scheme of agricultural zoning of the territory of Tuva.

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Table 1.   Meteorological and agrochemical assessment of the Central Tuva Basin
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The soils of the intermountain basins of Tuva belong to the steppe zone of the sub-boreal belt of Eurasia with predominantly steppe and desert-steppe soil formation groups predominating (Nosin, 1963). The main types of soils on arable lands of the Central Tuva Basin are chestnut sandy loam soils that are subject to wind erosion (60%), chernozems (23%), and alluvial soddy soils (15%).

The land fund of the Republic of Tuva as of January 1, 2021 is 16 860.4 thou ha, the total area of agricultural land is 3363.9 thou ha (19.9% of the total area of the land fund of the republic). Of these, 2653.6 thou ha (78.9%) are agricultural land, 710.2 thou ha (21.1%) are non-agricultural land. As part of agricultural land, the area of arable land is 135.5 thou ha, the area of fallow land is 61.4 thou ha, the area of hayfields is 54.8 thou ha, and the area of pastures is 2401.9 thou ha (Statisticheskii …, 2021).

After reforming the country’s agriculture in 1991, the transfer of agricultural land to self-sufficiency in Tuva led to the exclusion from circulation of 284.6 thou ha of arable land. The transition from a planned economy to a market economy led to a sharp decrease in the area of agricultural land. Thus, from 1990 to 2020, the area of agricultural land decreased from 3.9 mln ha to 2.6 mln ha (Kozhuuny i goroda …, 2016; Gosudarstvennyi doklad …, 2021). The reduction in the area of arable land is due to the increase in fallow lands and partially the transfer of arable land to the lands of the state land reserve (Belek et al., 2017). At present, pastures predominate among all types of agricultural land (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2.
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The structure of agricultural land in the Republic of Tyva, thou ha (Doklad …, 2020).

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Ecological and economic assessments of agricultural lands were made for a number of regions of the country (Makarov et al., 2016, 2017a, 2017b, 2018, 2019, 2020; Yakovlev et al., 2016; Bondarenko, 2016; Badmaev, 2016; Tsvetnov et al., 2019; Makarov et al., 2021). For the Republic of Tyva, such an assessment has been carried out by us for the first time (Dabiev and Sambuu, 2020). The assessment of soil degradation of agricultural lands of districts (kozhuuns) of two zones of the republic (Fig. 3) was carried out according to the “Methodology for Determining the Amount of Damage from Soil and Land Degradation” (1994). The methodology is available in the use of calculated data: binding to the cadastral and economic assessment of agricultural land, the use of environmental coefficients, which depend both on the ecological situation in the territories and the degree of change in soil degradation. The source of information is literary data, regional reports on the state and use of land, statistical data (Kozhuuny i goroda …, 2016; Doklad o sostoyanii …, 2020; Gosudarstvennyi doklad …, 2021; Sotsial’no-ekonomicheskie pokazateli …, 2019; Statisticheskii ezhegodnik …, 2019, 2020, 2021; Statisticheskii sbornik …, 2021).

Fig. 3.
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The map-scheme of the regions of the Central and Western agricultural zones in the Republic of Tyva.

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The following formula is used for assessment (Methodika…, 1994):

$${\text{Ad}} = {\text{Cs}} \times {\text{S}} \times {\text{Ce}} \times {\text{Cd}} \times {\text{Ci}} + {\text{Ai}} \times {\text{S}} \times {\text{Cr}}{\text{,}}$$

where Ad is the amount of damage from soil and land degradation (thou rubles); Cs is the cost standard (cadastral or market value); Ai is the annual income per unit area (thou rubles); S is the area of degraded soils and lands (ha); Ce is the coefficient of the ecological situation of the territory; Cr is the conversion factor depending on the period of time for the recovery of degraded soils and lands; Cd is the conversion factor depending on the change in the degree of soil and land degradation; and Ci is the coefficient for specially protected areas.

In the case of degradation of soils and lands within specially protected areas, regional authorities may introduce increasing coefficients (Ci) for the cost standards: 3.0 for the lands of the natural reserve fund, 2.0 for the lands of nature protection, recreational, and historical and cultural purposes, 1.5 for the lands of recreational purposes, 1.0 for other lands (Metodika opredeleniya …, 1994). To assess the environmental damage to agricultural lands, we used the coefficient of the ecological situation and the significance of the state of soils of 1.1 and the coefficient of recovery of soils and lands of 0.9 (Metodika opredeleniya …, 1994; Postanovlenie pravitel’stva RF …, 2014).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The central and western agricultural zones of Tuva are the largest, developed and densely populated parts of the republic, where 63% of arable land and two-thirds of the hayfields and pastures are concentrated and more than 80% of the population of the republic lives.

We performed preliminary assessments of agricultural land degradation for the administrative districts of the Central and Western agricultural zones of Tuva. When calculating the cadastral value, account was taken of summary data and correction factors (Tables 2–5), which are necessary as derivatives in the above formula. The calculation of damage (in rubles) was made according to the above formula. For example, let us take the Bai-Taiginskii district: Cs, the cost standard is the cadastral value (Table 2), is 3500 rub/ha, S, the area of degraded agricultural land, is 63 630 ha, and Ce, the coefficient of the ecological situation of the territory of the Republic of Tyva, which is part of the Eastern-Siberian economic region of the Russian Federation, is 1.1. The coefficients are introduced to take into account the total impact of soil and land degradation on the ecological situation. The territorial bodies of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia and Roskomzem adjust the coefficients by a joint decision and also introduce the necessary indicators for the types of soil and land degradation based on natural and climatic conditions (Metodika opredeleniya …, 1994); Cd, the conversion factor depending on the change in the degree of soil and land degradation (from 0 to 1); in the Bai-Taiginskii district the degree of soil degradation in agricultural land is 25.6%, i.e. the correction factor is 0.26; Ci is 1.0 (in this case, we consider agricultural land, i.e. other lands); Ai, annual income per unit area, rub/ha (Table 3), is 1431 rub/ha; Cr, the conversion factor depending on the period of land recovery on the example of the Bai-Taiginsky district, is 0.9 (1 year; Table 4). We make a calculation: damage (Bai-Taiginskii district) = 35.0 thou rubles × 63 630 ha × 1.1 × 0.25 × 1.0 + 1.431 thou rubles × 63 630 ha × 0.9 = 61 243.8 thou rubles + 81 949.0 thou rubles = 143 192.8 thou rubles (Table 5).

Table 2.   The cadastral value and area of agricultural land (including degraded land) for the districts of the Republic of Tyva
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Table 3.   The annual income per unit area for the districts of the Republic of Tyva
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Table 4.   The values of the conversion factor (Cr) depending on the period of time for the recovery of soils and lands (Metodika opredeleniya …, 1994)
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Table 5.   The cadastral valuation of agricultural land in the districts of the Central and Western zones of the Republic of Tyva, taking into account soil degradation and environmental damage
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CONCLUSIONS

As a result of calculations, the environmental damage to agricultural lands in the Central and Western agricultural zones of the Republic of Tyva is estimated at more than 3.5 bln rubles, which is 62.2% of the cadastral value of agricultural land. The greatest damage in percentage terms was revealed in the central agricultural regions: Tandinskii district (98.7%), Kyzylskii district (73.3%) and old agricultural Chaa-Kholskii district (73.2%). The greatest damage in monetary terms was observed in the Kyzylskii district (1.2 bln rubles), Tandinskii district (0.5 bln rubles) and Chaa-Kholskii district (0.5 bln rubles). The least damage both in percentage terms and in monetary terms is observed in the livestock-breeding Bai-Taiginskii district (16% and 0.1 bln rubles, respectively).

These cost losses must be taken into account to calculate the market value, which directly depends on the cadastral value. Using this method, it is possible to calculate the damage for other categories of land by changing the correction factors.

Thus, the development of the agricultural sector of the republic requires not only capital investments in fixed assets of enterprises of the agro-industrial complex, which include buildings and structures, equipment, agricultural machinery, etc. We carried out preliminary assessments for some areas of the Central and Western agricultural zones of the republic; nevertheless, the results of the assessment show that it is necessary to further study the processes of degradation of agricultural lands in order to carry out scientifically based measures to improve their quality.