AGRICULTURAL DRAINAGE IN NORTH WEST RUSSIA: PROBLEMS AND INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS

摘要

The area of subsurface drained agricultural lands of North West Russia exceeds 349 thousandhectares. In addition about 300 thousand hectares are covered by surface drainage systems.Such extensive drainage systems cause peculiar problems and require specifi c approachin their management and maintenance. According to long term meteorological observationsprecipitation increase has been documented during last decades. As the consequence ofprecipitation increase the drainage volume increased, reducing water disposal form drainedsoils. Besides, drainage systems observations held in 2002- 2008 had shown hard panformation in the subsoil caused by multiple passes of heavy agricultural machinery. Subsoil densifi cation became a reason for poor subsoil drainage, especially in low permeabilitysoils. These factors indicate a low level of drainage systems maintenance leading to croploss. In order to reduce negative infl uence of climatic and anthropogenic factors on drainagesystems in Leningrad region, rural industry reaffi rms the need of special development forthe agricultural drainage, which involves a development of innovative technologies, facilities,organizational, economic and administrative decisions