Benefits of conservation agriculture in Ukraine. A way forward to reverse land degradation by limiting erosion.

Article[1] by: Turi Fileccia, Senior Agronomist in the Investment Centre of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

As a follow-up to previous successful experiences in the European and Central Asia (ECA) region[2], the World Bank and FAO set up a team[3]^,[4] to  carry out a preliminary assessment on the potential for adoption of Conservation Agriculture/No-till (CA) technology in Ukraine (March-June 2013).

The premise is that significant potential benefits can be generated by large scale adoption of CA as a primary paradigm of Climate Smart Agriculture. These benefits include: (i) on-farm financial benefits as a result of more stable production levels and/or decreasing input use and consequently lower production costs; (ii) off-farm national benefits, such as the reduced erosion and its negative impacts; and (iii) global benefits to reduced CO₂ emissions and more stable export supplies from Ukraine to food insecure importing countries.

The findings of the study are the result of field visits to Ukraine and continued intense interaction with relevant institutional interlocutors, national and international scientists, donor community, farm managers and owners, agriculture machinery suppliers, technicians and practitioners[5]. A wealth of most up-to-date information and data, including important yet unpublished works have been collected and analyzed, which have all allowed to produce the conclusions of this effort. The assessment has evidently confirmed the validity of its original grounds but should be considered a first round review, which will require more specific analyses and validations to be hopefully done soon.

Ukraine is a major player in the international grain markets contributing to global food security. The country is gifted by nature with a strategic production asset: the Chernozems soils. These soils - covering about 75 percent of the arable lands of Ukraine - are amongst the richest in the world ensuring a significant food output.

Fig. 1 Distribution of Chernozem in Europe (Left) & Typical Chernozem Profile

Source: European Soil Atlas

Fig. 2 Distribution of the Soil Type in Ukraine

Source: Adapted from Plate 18 of the soil Atlas of Europe

This asset over the years has however been widely degraded by erosion. The phenomenon is continuing to the extent that more than 500 million tons of soil are annually eroded in the country. Erosion is causing every year a loss of soil fertility over the entire arable land (32.5 million hectares) that can be valued currently at US$5 billion, in nutrient equivalent. There is evidence to suggest that the intensity is accelerating. This soil fertility loss is intrinsically related to the high costs of production borne by producers for additional inorganic fertilizers required to keep up productivity.

Erosion is the major challenge which is thus threatening the comparative advantage of crop production systems of Ukraine. Other major national level issues caused by soil erosion are likely to include siltation of rivers, harbors, and dams (feeding hydroelectric power stations water intakes).

Soil degradation processes driven by erosion imply a number of interlinked issues. Firstly, a reduced capacity of the soils to retain moisture, which is always essential but especially during dry years. It is a fact that during the last fifteen years, drought events have increased both in intensity and in frequency in Ukraine due to a changing climate. Droughts are now occurring in average once every three years, causing productivity decline. In some major productive areas of the country (the so-called Steppe area) these impacts are more severe than elsewhere. Indeed, Climate Change is expected to exacerbate these phenomena in the very near future.

Fig. 3 Ukraine – Soil Erosion visible from satellites

Source:  Google Earth © (Obtained 17 June 2013)

Paradoxically, the high agricultural quality of Ukrainian soils and their inherent productivity resilience behaves at the same time as bias, which is delaying the much needed remedial measures that should be put in place to reduce, and possibly reverse soil degradation. The risk is that without action, a point of no return may be reached that would mask soil fertility loss mitigation even through huge input investments. Eventually, it may imply crop production undertaking to become uneconomic in Ukraine. This is a concern of high relevance for agricultural enterprises, which are currently contributing by over 85 percent to the agricultural GDP. 

Land tillage is well known to be the major driver of soil erosion. The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine is fully aware of this and is prioritizing erosion prevention and the use of resource saving technologies. Ukrainian soil scientists and academics - albeit with limited resources and means - are focusing their research on the erosion phenomenon, including the implications of Climate Change. Farmers are pressed to reduce their production costs to be competitive in the global market and hence have widely bought-in resource saving strategies by introducing innovative technologies.

The considerable expansion of the use of Minimum Tillage stands to testify the effort towards change. This is a move in the right direction that has already provided a number of important benefits. However this specific technology provides only a partial remedy to erosion and loss in soil fertility.

Conservation agriculture (CA) with no-till system is a sustainable and effective climate smart agriculture practice which:

• contrasts erosion, maintains soil fertility, and enhances drought resilience; and
• is primarily capable of significantly abating costs of production by minimizing fuel consumption.

Fig. 4 FAO’s definition of Conservation Agriculture

During the last ten years or so, some progressive farmers of Ukraine - with international exposure and indeed large farming areas of over 4000 hectares - have satisfactorily adopted this technology on about 2 percent of the arable land of the country, mainly in the Steppe area. Unfortunately, this is still happening too sparsely to stimulate wide emulation.

Fig. 5 Ukraine – Technologies at comparison

Misconceptions regarding CA technology adaptation to the Ukrainian agro-ecological and farm organizational conditions are creating obstacles to widespread adoption. Improved research networking is required to facilitate knowledge sharing on appropriate application and technology effectiveness.

However, the wave of change and the genuine professional interest of the agriculture enterprises appear to be increasing at a good pace. This ought to be further encouraged and leveraged. Should dedicated resources and specific development initiatives be made available, it is believed likely that the larger agricultural enterprises - beginning with the Steppe area of the country where the erosion issues are more pressing - will start championing a virtuous cycle towards this paradigm change.

In terms of technical and organizational feasibility, Conservation Agriculture/no till technology would have the potential in the short term (3-5 years) to encompass an area of about 3 million hectares in the Steppe region (the portion managed by farms of 4000 hectares and above). The region has then the prospective to complete the technology coverage in the medium term (6-10 years) reaching 9 million hectares (the entire area managed by agriculture enterprises therein). Ultimately, a gradual move in the Forest Steppe area could be foreseen so that in the longer term an overall area of 17 million hectares would possibly adopt the technology in Ukraine.  

There is a great need of convincing and accurate information which would stimulate this process. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has carried out with World Bank support a fist analytical attempt in this direction. This is a preliminary assessment which requires more in depth verifications and wider validation; but its unprecedented findings provide good confidence on the potential benefits that would accrue from CA technology adoption at different levels: farm/enterprise, national and global. The aggregated annual benefits potentially accruing from CA/No till adoption in Ukraine which have been estimated through this preliminary assessment are summarized below:

Fig. 6 Potential Annual Benefits from the Adoption of Conservation Agriculture

The preliminary assessment would require a follow-up investigation to address areas such as: detailed on-farm productivity, economic and environmental analyses for technology comparison; assessment of agricultural machinery capacity and market; evaluation of erosion impact on river system and water bodies’ siltation; climate change impact on crop yields with ad hoc methodologies; etc. Further investigation would need to look into the critical bottlenecks to adoption and possible areas for investment by the state, donors and the private sector, including partnerships between the three. The follow-up study would also ascertain the actual investment magnitude and the modalities to render available the required financial resources to the country. At a very first approximation, the short term investments are estimated to range from US$150 to US$ 300 per hectare.