“The soils of Ukraine are one of the ecosystems most affected by the war. About a quarter of all agricultural areas of Ukraine are currently unavailable for use. These are lands occupied by the enemy and agricultural lands that are not cultivated due to hostilities.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
The soils of Ukraine are one of the ecosystems most affected by the war. About a quarter of all agricultural areas of Ukraine are currently unavailable for use. These are lands occupied by the enemy and agricultural lands that are not cultivated due to hostilities.
According to the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, currently environmental damage from the war is more than 2.6 trillion hryvnias. Among them, UAH 1 trillion — soil pollution. We will be able to assess all the scales only after the deoccupation, but we can already see certain features today.
The use of phosphorus bombs, mining, a huge number of unexploded shells; spent ammunition, broken military equipment, spilled fuel – all this pollutes and destroys the ecosystem.
We are dealing with several types of soil degradation at once – the loss of the land’s properties due to the impact of war. It can be mechanical, when ruptures are formed, projectiles and debris fall. Physical — if the top layer of soil is compacted under the influence of heavy machinery. There is also a chemical impact: it is about the loss of organic carbon, nutrients, the accumulation of heavy metals and oil products.
Among the scientific community, several teams systematically study the impact of the war on the soil of Ukraine. Our colleagues from the Institute of Soil Science and Agrochemistry named after O. N. Sokolovskyi, working in the Kharkiv region, identified as many as 17 types of military soil degradation. The team surveyed the occupied territories with the help of satellite imaging: they discovered the explosions from air and artillery shells, burned areas, places where equipment was moving and its debris.
The complex study was carried out by ecologists, geologists and soil scientists from the “Ekodia” center. Scientists of the Institute of Soil Protection also carry out a lot of research work. And the researchers of our institute worked at the sites of ammunition explosions and burning military equipment in Kherson region, Kharkiv region, and Khmelnytskyi region.
However, hardly anyone has a complete picture of changes in the land cover of Ukraine. Everyone gives an estimate based on their experience. And the situation is constantly changing. On the one hand, the landscapes continue to be destroyed, and on the other hand, farmers are resuming farming in the liberated and demined territories without properly surveying the territory.
What do researchers see? To investigate the condition of the soil, we measure the acidity, the level of humus (the upper layer containing the nutrients necessary for plants), and we assess the contamination with some heavy metals. We analyze in detail the content of microorganisms — pathogenic and not only. And these indicators already show that the soil has changed. Sometimes there are really polluted areas where the maximum allowable concentrations of heavy metals are exceeded ten times. It is impossible to use them without cleaning, this threatens not only the loss of the harvest, but also harm to people’s health.
Sometimes the indicators of soil condition that we determine do not have catastrophic changes. And that’s what worries me. After all, there is always a risk that organic and chemical compounds that we do not investigate remain outside our attention, because we simply do not expect them to be there.
In addition to physical damage and heavy metals, soil contamination with secondary explosives is also a danger. The most widespread of them are TNT, hexogen, octogen. Getting into the ground, they can transform into carcinogens. And this means the possibility of an outbreak of oncological diseases in these territories in a few years.
How to save land from the consequences of war?The full-scale war clearly demonstrated that the food security of other countries of the world depends on the crop production of Ukraine. And you cannot grow a pre-war crop on polluted and damaged soils.
However, we see from the example of farmers in the same Kherson region that it will be possible to adapt to certain environmental consequences. Farmers do not wait until they are remembered. They themselves invite deminers, take out burned equipment, sow fields. Because the holding can still be left without a field, and for a farmer it is his whole life.
Partners call us when there is trouble on the field. We come as an ambulance. We do agrochemical, biological and phytopathological analysis at the same time, advise what to do next.
How can you improve the condition of the earth? There are many methods, including the use of sorbents, the application of fertilizers, and the use of biological preparations.
In case of minor violations, mineral fertilizers are applied to feed the plants. In the case of blast damage, soil often loses organic matter and nitrogen. In this case, organic fertilizers are used. And if the permissible level of heavy metals is exceeded, phosphorus is added – it reduces the mobility of toxic elements. And also: the soil must be “alive”, so it is worth using biological preparations.
Physico-chemical methods, microbiological preparations, and organic fertilizers are suitable for cleaning oil products. They process harmful substances and help to restore the top layer of soil in burnt areas. Studies have shown that thanks to the drugs, it is possible to reduce the amount of petroleum products in the soil by 59-92%.
It is good when damaged lands are covered with vegetation, so they recover faster. In such areas, it is advisable to plant pollution-tolerant crops. By the way, corn has powerful physiological barriers, it can produce a high-quality crop despite the increased content of heavy metals in the soil.
Now in Ukraine, precision agriculture is particularly relevant. This is when a machine passes through the field that instantly analyzes the soil and applies the right dose of fertilizers. Such a method would make it possible to use fertilizers more efficiently and to even out the properties of the fields. Because we already have their variegation and heterogeneity: for example, we come to a field and see that wheat grows in spots – somewhere higher, somewhere lower, it has a different color.
And some territories will have to be taken out of cultivation after the war, as, for example, France did after the First World War. After all, certain areas cannot be restored – it will be too expensive and impractical. It is not desirable to cultivate the land in which there are too many chemicals and fragments of weapons.
First of all, the war threatens Ukraine with a decrease in the harvest and loss of its quality.
What to do with it? We all need to work together. This year, we are holding the conference “National Challenge: Soil Degradation or Restoration of Their Fertility?” for the fifth time. We invite leading scientists, representatives of business, and state authorities to draw the maximum attention of society to this problem and jointly search for ways to solve it.
Svitlana Korsun, doctor of agricultural sciences, executive director of the Institute of Applied Biotechnology of the BTU group of companies