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ORGANIC SOIL AREA AND THE GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION AND QUALITY THEREOF IN LATVIA

Irina Pilvere

Abstract

Soil and its quality are the key factor that determines opportunities for agricultural production in a particular territory. However, through lasting land management practices, soil structure can be significantly modified. In the context of climate change, soils can contribute to increased greenhouse gas emissions; for this reason, the techniques that contribute to sustainable land management have to be used in agricultural production. In many Central European countries, organic soils have been extensively used and no longer qualify as organic soils. In Latvia, organic soils have been little research to date. Therefore, the overall aim of the present research is to identify the organic soil area and the geographic location and quality of the area in Latvia. To achieve the aim, the following specific research tasks are defined: 1) to analyse the organic soil area and the geographic location of the area in Latvia; 2) to identify the quality of organic soils in the agricultural area in Latvia. Based on an assessment and aggregation of soil map information, the research found that the total area with hydromorphic and semi-hydromorphic soils was equal to 378.4 thou. ha or 16-20% (depending on the source of information) of the total utilised agricultural area. The largest organic soil areas are located in the northern and south-eastern part of Latvia. The qualitative estimates of the organic soils areas are in the range of 33-36 points, which are lower than the national average for the utilised agricultural area, thereby limiting the use of organic soils in agriculture.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2018/5.3/s28.078

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