The influence of the level of societal development on the culture of farming and soil fertility

The Law of Correspondence of the Level of Farming Culture to the Socio-Economic Development of Society: "The level of farming culture is determined by the level of socio-economic development of society." This law was first formulated by A.Kh. Sheudzhen (2001).

Global experience in the development of farming systems – from ancient primitive systems to modern intensive technologies – testifies to the fact that the level of farming culture is ultimately determined by the degree of human civilization's development, being a kind of function of technical (scientific and technological) progress. Thus, the rather high level of farming culture in Ancient Greece and Rome was largely determined by the high level of ancient civilization, which gave the world dozens and hundreds of outstanding minds: philosophers, writers, poets, historians, and, which is especially important for us, agricultural scientists. Endless wars and the surge of religious fanaticism, as well as the obscurantism of the Inquisition during the Middle Ages, noticeably hindered the development of human civilization; accordingly, agriculture returned almost to a primitive state.

In turn, the 19th and especially the 20th centuries were characterized by truly revolutionary discoveries of steam power, electricity, and the split atomic nucleus; internal combustion engines appeared and began to be widely used. These centuries, which served as a kind of "crown" of modern technocratic civilization, also led to a sharp rise in farming culture: the introduction of scientifically based farming systems, the creation of a diverse fleet of agricultural machinery operating on fundamentally new energy sources, and the intensive and fruitful development of agricultural sciences.

From this point of view, the highly descriptive and, at the same time, methodologically clearly formulated statement by K.A. Timiryazev is of undoubted interest: "Field culture has always gone hand in hand with human culture." This thesis is developed by L.O. Karpachevsky (1983): "Increasing the yield of crops requires increasing the energy capacity of the farm, as well as the development of chemical production and mechanical engineering. A high level of agricultural production also requires a corresponding level of development of agricultural science, including land reclamation, soil science, and agricultural chemistry."

The Law of Increasing Soil Fertility

The Law of Increasing soil fertility: "In the very nature of the soil formation process, which takes place with the leading role of living organisms, there is an inevitable increase in soil fertility over time."

In the formulation of V.V. Ermolenkov, A.A. Shelyuto, V.N. Prokopovich, et al. (1998), it is presented as the "law of progressive growth of effective soil fertility." Commenting on this law in their work "Agriculture," they emphasize that it "justifies the progressive (most likely, the scientists meant: 'progressing'? – Auth.) growth of effective soil fertility as agriculture intensifies." According to the aforementioned authors, this law clearly testifies to the continuity of increasing soil productivity while simultaneously improving their fertility and increasing crop production per unit of area with the lowest costs. At the same time, the continuity of increasing soil productivity under conditions of intensification is conditioned by extensive chemicalization, land reclamation, and mechanization. One of the indispensable conditions for the effective operation of this law is, in the authors' opinion, "strict observance of other laws of agriculture, especially the law of crop rotation and the law of return of nutrients, since a significant part of the grown organic mass is removed with the harvest."

6.11.2.12. The "Law" of Diminishing Soil Fertility

The "Law" of Diminishing Soil Fertility: "Every additional investment of labor and capital into the land is accompanied not by a corresponding, but by a diminishing increment in the amount of the obtained product; each subsequent yield increase is achieved with greater costs than the previous one."

This "law" was formulated back in the 18th century by the French economist A.R. Turgot, supplemented by the English scientist E. West, and "subsequently used by T.R. Malthus to justify the 'theory of overpopulation'." However, some authors erroneously linked this "law" to the name of J. Liebig. In this regard, it is worth recalling the warning of D.N. Pryanishnikov (1965) that attempts to artificially "attach" this "law" to the laws of agriculture discovered by J. Liebig are illegitimate: "Some confuse Liebig's law of the minimum with the so-called law of diminishing soil fertility, with the misguided (as in the text! – Auth.) doctrine of Malthus – but in reality, there is nothing in common here."

A reasoned criticism of this "law" was presented by V.R. Williams (1939): "It is self-evident," he wrote, "that this last 'law' is not a law of nature, but an illustration of an incorrect approach to explaining complex processes, functions of many factors linked by the laws of mutual interference."

The impermissibility of confusing T.R. Malthus's doctrine with the laws of agriculture is also mentioned in the work of A.M. Lykov, A.A. Korotkov, G.I. Bazdyrev, et al. (1990). The scientists note that the impact on soil fertility in agricultural production is based on the fact that none of the factors of plant life (nutrients, water, air, etc.) can be replaced by another, as they are all equally important. Therefore, it is possible to increase the yield of crops only by simultaneously improving the nutritional, water, and air regimes. "A one-sided effect on any factor without changing others in the desired direction," the scientists emphasize, "leads to a gradual decrease in the effect (the so-called 'law of diminishing soil fertility')."

Modern data from agricultural science and practice, economics, and statistics completely reject the existence of the "law of diminishing soil fertility." The main methodological error of this "law," according to A.P. Shcherbakov and I.D. Ruday (1983), is "in ignoring the achievements of scientific and technological progress in agriculture, the essence of which is manifested in the fact that additional investments of labor and funds in farming contribute not just to the simple repetition of soil tillage techniques, but to the introduction of new machines, more advanced agrotechnical methods, and the further development of chemicalization and land reclamation." From this point of view, in our opinion, the aforementioned "law of increasing soil fertility" deserves much more attention under the conditions of modern intensification of agricultural production. The law of diminishing fertility may have an effect under conditions of extensive farming with weak application of organic and mineral fertilizers.

6.11.2.13. Malthus' "Law" of Population

Malthus' "law" of population: "The growth of the production of the means of subsistence in general and the reproduction of plant and living organisms in particular proceed in an arithmetic progression, while the growth of the population proceeds in a geometric progression."

This "law" was first formulated by the English economist and clergyman T.R. Malthus in his book "An Essay on the Principle of Population" (1798). According to the scheme he proposed, as a result of the clear discrepancy between the rates of "reproduction of plant and living organisms" and the rates of population growth, an absolutely surplus population is formed in society, finding neither work nor food, and the impoverishment of the masses arises and grows. It is on this basis that a "struggle for existence" and a "war of all against all" occur among people, which, according to Malthus, explains the endless wars taking place on Earth.

Applied Agricultural Chemistry

In farming, as in chemistry, one should not lose sight of the basic chemical law – the conservation of matter. Matter only undergoes various physical and chemical changes, changes place and form, but is neither created nor destroyed. For example, when a plant grows, it does not increase in mass by itself; it grows only because it absorbs gases from the air and, with its roots, sucks water from the soil along with the substances dissolved in it. The nutrients supplied to the plant from the air are always the same and can never be exhausted. It is completely different with their content in the soil. If nothing is done to replenish the latter, the soil, losing them with every harvest, must become impoverished.

FERTILIZERS: PROPERTIES, CHEMICAL COMPOSITION