Abstract only

Area of the antropogenic landscapes exceeds 10 thousand ha in Georgia. Their expansion is associated with serious decrease of area of the agricultural, forest and other lands and pollution of the bordering areas. For the first time, a research was conducted with the purpose to re-cultivate technogenic lands for their further use for grape, maize, soybean and other crop production in the manganese open-cast mine of Chiaturi district (Gogatishvili, 1965). Later this research was extended to the open-cast mines of bentonitic clay, silica sand and copper-polymetalic ore. The main objective of our research was to identify methods of restoriong soi] fertility through applications of organic and mineral fertilizers. Six treatments with 4 replications were applied to the maize field. Rocks lack nutritive substances needed for plants, especially they lack nitrogen, which results in high plant response to fertilizer applications. When we apply nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers in combination, grain yield is as high as 3.1 t/ha, which exceeds many times the average yield across the Chiaturi district. Incorporation of perennial grasses in soil through plowing results in grain yield increase due to their after-effect. Despite the proven fact that fertilizer applications provide for rather high maize and soybean yield (3.14 t/ha), growing perennial grasses during 4-5 years shou1d be preferred as they provide yield, improve fertility of dumped soil and contribute to higher yields of the succeeding crops. The results of the research suggest that technogenic soils can be used in agricultural production. This is especially important for such densely populated and land-insufficient country as Georgia, where degraded soils are mainly located in the areas with developed agriculture and favorable environment for growing cereals.

English

0409|AGRIS 0401|AL-Maize Program

Juan Carlos Mendieta

CIMMYT Publications Collection