The quality of agricultural lands in Drăguşeni commune, Iasi county

Abstract

Fertility is the most important soil characteristic and it is defined by the whole set of physical, chemical and biological features that provide plants their nutrients during the vegetation period. All lands enjoy natural fertility, which originates in the soil genesis process, as well as artificial fertility, which is the result of human intervention in the natural soil evolution consisting of agricultural improvement measures. Agricultural land quality is determined by assessment, according to which, in Romania, agricultural land belongs to five quality classes differentiated based on their assessment grades. The assessment study is conducted on various agricultural lands, which should be as homogeneous as possible from the viewpoint of their environmental factors and vegetation factors. In the territorialadministrative unit of Drăguşeni, the 23 simple land units and the 6 complex land units identified, belonging to the Protisols, Cernisols, Luvisols, Hydrisols and Antrisols classes, were divided according to slope and exhibition in elementary land units, resulting in 90 ecologically homogeneous territories (TEOs), of which 45 are simple TEOs and 45 are complex TEOs. Based on the evaluation carried out for the 90 ecologically homogeneous territories, the territory studied fits into the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th quality classes of arable land. From the total area of 1729 ha covered, the largest surface of 631 ha (36.50%) comes into the 3rd quality class. The surface of 534 ha (30.88%) and 161 ha (9.31%), respectively, belong to the lower quality classes, namely the 4th and 5th. Finally, the surface of 403 ha (23.31%) is included in the 2nd, upper quality class.