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During the last 50 years the humus content in the arable layer of the soil in the basic agrarian regions of Ukraine (steppe and forest steppe) has diminished by 15-18 %. Optimisation of the structure of land areas and stabilisation of agricultural landscapes should be based on the soil indicators that ensure conservation of land. It has been substantiated that the contour-meliorative system of land use under the conditions of the development of farming enterprises as the main form of the contemporary land system should be modernised. Primary water collectors should be selected as the object of formation of this system. There are proposed new directions of measures to improve the protection of the soil mantle. The results of the conducted investigation will help stop the soil fertility deterioration process because of excessively high share of arable land and disregard of the ecological and agronomic land-use norms. It is prognosticated that the area of the arable land will decrease by 5.1 mln. ha, but the area of forests and protective plantations will increase by 2.7 million hectares, reaching the proportion of the territory covered by forests to 22 %.
Novakovska et al. (Wed,) studied this question.