Advanced Technology for Improving Degraded Slopes in Mountainous and Foothill Zones

Abstract

The authors presented the technology and mechanization means for the restoration of degraded mountain areas with slope steepness up to 15 degrees.(Research purpose) To determine the optimal distance between the springy racks of the chisel cultivator KCHG-2.4; to characterize the developed block-module of the multifunctional unit KCHG-2.4, which performed three operations after the slitting process: sowing grasses, applying mineral fertilizers and rolling the sown seeds and granular fertilizers into the soil; to determine the effectiveness of the developed agricultural practices that increased productivity and the environment-forming role of mountain phytocenoses.(Materials and methods). The tests were carried out in the mountainous zone of North Ossetia - Alania at an altitude of 1540 meters above sea level with slope steepness up to 15 degrees. The experimental area was divided into three replicates. Each replicate was 2.4 meters wide, 10 meters long, dividing stripes 1 meter, side stripes 2.4 meters. The total test area, located across the slope, was 184.2 square meters.(Results and discussion) The springy Väderstad strut of the KCG-2.4 unit was used to slit the mountain slopes. For overseeding, a three-component grass mixture of Phleum pratense L., Dactylis glomerata L. and Trifolium pratense L. was proposed at a seeding rate of 15 kilograms per hectare. When applying mineral fertilizers, the following composition was used (in the active ingredient): ammonium nitrate – 35 percent; superphosphate – 20; potash salt – 40 percent, in total 445 kilograms per hectare. An increase in dry aboveground mass of 3.02-4.19 tons per hectare and the accumulation of underground plant mass in the range of 1.84-12.62 tons per hectare were got, depending on the variant of the experiment.(Conclusions) The authors found out that, a higher yield was obtained with a distance between the slits of 1.5 meters for 3 years of observations. It was found that the use of the unit increased the collection of feed units from 0.81-1.68 to 4.06-4.98 thousand per hectare. Taking into account all costs, the cost of one feed unit was 8.76 rubles.

Keywords

• slopes
• soil degradation
• restoration of degraded mountain areas
• overseeding of grasses
• fissuring
• fertilization
• cultivation of meadows and pastures