3.2 Land resources
3.2 Land resources
The Republic of Buryatia has the major share in the agricultural production in Lake Baikal basin (around 80%) [3,4]. In the Republic of Buryatia, the area of agricultural lands compared to 2011 rose by 0.883 thousand ha (pic. 3.2.1). In Severobaikalsky district, 0.003 thousand ha were transferred to the category of specially protected lands.
Pic. 3.2.1 Population farmland provision of Baikal basin [1]
Agriculture is concentrated in the southern and central parts of the district and carried out by farms of different forms of property (table 3.2.1).
Table 3.2.1 Structure of agricultural products by the categories of farms (in the existing prices and percentage of the total amount)
The leading sectors of agriculture in the Republic of Buryatia are cattle rearing, production of crops and vegetables. Agriculture in Buryatia has an extremely low productivity.
The yield of grain was 1.28 and 1.24 tons of grain/ha in 2012 and 2013, respectively (pic. 3.2.2).
Pic. 3.2.2 Crop of Baikal basin [1]
The agricultural output of all the agricultural producers in Lake Baikal basin (agricultural organizations, individual households, small collective farms) was 13.6 and 13.8 billion rubles in 2012 and 2013, respectively. The grain harvest was 125.7 and 112.6 thousand tons in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Individual households play a leading role the agriculture [10].
The number of livestock in the Republic of Buryatia tends to grow, which is reflected in the data of the Buryat Statistic Bureau [10] for 2013 (pic. 3.2.3) (table 3.2.2).
Pic. 3.2.3 Animal industry of Baikal basin [1]
Table 3.2.2. Number of livestock (as of January 1, owned by farms of all categories in thousand animals)
In 2012 and 2013, 51.6 and 54.6 thousand tons of meat, respectively, were produced. 227.9 and 225.8 thousand tons of milk were produced (overall yield) in 2012 and 2013, respectively (table 3.2.3).
Table 3.2.3 Production of major livestock products (by farms of all categories)
Meat and meat products produced in the Republic do not meet the local demand. The demand for meat products in 2011-2012 was equal to 74.6 and 80.0 thousand tons, respectively, and more than 50% of this amount was supplied through import of the products. About 28% of milk and milk products are imported.
In Irkutsk Region, agricultural production in Lake Baikal basin is relatively insignificant and does not have commodity basis [3,4].
In Mongolia, 113,309.9 thousand m2 were used for agriculture in 2013, among that 112,738.5 thousand m2 were pasture/untouched land and 571.4 thousand m2 were occupied by crops/vegetables (pic. 3.2.1 and pic. 3.2.4) [9].
Pic. 3.2.4 The wheatfield, somone Baruunburen, Selenge aimag
Agricultural output decreased by 16.6% in 2010 compared to the previous year, further decreased by 0.5% in 2011, then increased by 21.6% in 2012 and decreased by 13.5% in 2013. There were 15.7 million head of cattle within the Selenga river basin in 2012, the number increased to 16.7 million head in 2013 (table 3.2.4).
Table 3.2.4. The area of agricultural land and number of livestock of all categories in the Selenga River Basin
In 2013, only 0.5% of agricultural land was used for crop farming. About 90% of the crop lands were located within the Selenga river basin. In 2013, agricultural produce was grown over an area of 415.4 thousand m2, of which 293.3 thousand m2 were occupied by wheat, 15.5 thousand m2 by potato, 8.3 thousand m2by vegetables, 14.4 thousand m2by fodder crops and the remaining 83.9 thousand m2were used to cultivate oil plants and fruits (pic. 3.2.5).
Pic. 3.2.5 The private farm, somon Shaamar, Selenge aimag
In 2013, 368.4 thousand tons of wheat, 191.6 thousand tons of potato, 101.8 thousand tons of vegetables, 42.6 thousand tons of fodder crops, 41.7 thousand tons of oil seeds, 1.6 thousand tons of fruits and berries were harvested (pic. 3.2.2 and table 3.2.5).
Table 3.2.5 Crop harvest in the Selenga river basin
In 2011, irrigation systems was built covering 46.5 thousand ha, 49.0% or 22.8 thousand ha of which are located in the Selenga river basin (pic. 3.2.6) [11]. The new irrigation infrastructure was used for irrigating 6.4 thousand ha of crops, 8.1 thousand ha of potato, 5.3 thousand ha of vegetable, 1.8 thousand ha of fruit, 1.1 thousand ha of fodder crops.
Pic. 3.2.6 The irrigation canal
