ИСТИНА

The Eurasian Soil Partnership (EASP) was formed as a component of Global Soil Partnership that gathers together all the stakeholders interested in sustainable management of soil resources. The EASP is considered to include countries, which face similar challenges in soil management, degradation, and reclamation. The common feature of all the Eurasian countries is that they are supposed to have somewhat excessive soil resources, and thus historically the agricultural development has been extensive rather than intensive. An illusion of richness in soils was one of the reasons why the productivity of agricultural lands was relatively low in spite of the presence of extensive areas of Chernozems, which are believed to be the most productive soils in the world. Of course, there were also socioeconomic reasons (planned economy) and natural limitations (severe climatic conditions in Russia and some other countries) that caused the gap in agricultural production between the most developed European states and the countries of the Eurasian region. After the revolutionary transformation of the Eurasian space in the 1990th the agriculture in most of the post-Soviet countries suffered a shock: it failed to compete with intensive agriculture of Europe and other developed countries. In Russia the total area of lands transformed to fallow during 1990-2005 was 48 million ha, i.e. the area that almost equaled the area of Spain. Actually the area used for agriculture is growing in all the countries, including Russian Federation. Actually there are two possible ways for the development of agriculture in the Eurasian region. One of them is to follow the Western intensive technologies, increase the doses of fertilizers, and use advanced agricultural machinery. The other way is to use an opportunity given by the presence of vast areas of unused fertile land in Eurasia and to practice organic agriculture. The intensive and organic agriculture may be developed simultaneously in different parts of the region; for example, intensive agriculture in the areas with the best climatic conditions, and the organic agriculture in marginal lands. Also combined techniques may be developed, like landscape-adaptive agriculture. Soil scientists should take part in the discussion on the perspectives for agricultural development in the region, and give an advice to the decision-makers on the regional planning for the development of agriculture. In the case of the intensive agricultural development soil scientists should ensure sustainable intensification, soil conservation and environmental protection by developing rational system of soil use and management. In the case of organic agriculture soil science can help in the increasing of soil productivity and in the application of soil-friendly technologies. The regional soil partnership in the Eurasian region should be aimed at trans-boundary studies, intensification of the technology transfer and encouraging the dialog between the farmers and soil scientists. The nearest goals will be the formation of a bank of ideas and a marketplace of agricultural technologies adapted to the natural and socioeconomic conditions of the Eurasian region. Soil salinity was considered to be the priority for the development of the implementation plan for the next few years.