Development of mechanisms of state support for land users producing on especially valuable lands under the established restrictions

The work contains a comprehensive analysis of legal, organizational, economic and scientific-methodological aspects of the protection and rational use of especially valuable agricultural lands in Russia under the current restrictions on changing their legal regime. The authors systematize the normative grounds for the allocation of such lands, trace the evolution of federal and regional legislation up to the Federal Law No. 52-FZ of April 1, 2025, which enshrined a ban on the transfer of especially valuable lands into other categories and tightened the procedure for their withdrawal. A large statistical material is used to show the dynamics of areas of especially valuable lands by federal districts for 2018-2024; disproportions related to erosion processes, revaluation of cadastral value and differences in regional approaches to the identification of such lands are revealed. A critical review of the methods of land classification by cadastral and agro-ecological indicators was carried out; the necessity of transition from the cost-oriented model to the model based on the indicators of true agricultural suitability and humus reproduction potential was proved. Special attention is paid to the formation of the system of state support for land users. A multilevel mechanism is proposed, including mandatory passportization of especially valuable plots with integration of data on soil quality in the Unified State Register of Real Estate; development of land management projects to establish territorial zones of especially valuable lands with differentiated agrotechnical regulations; economic incentives in the form of tax and lease privileges, subsidies for land reclamation and compensation payments for temporary soil conservation; decentralization of budgetary funds distribution and introduction of program-targets; implementation of the system of state support for land users. Implementation of the measures proposed by the authors will contribute to improving food security, environmental sustainability and long-term investment attractiveness of the Russian agricultural sector.