Nina M. Andreeva
Institute of World Economy & International Relations
Russian Academy of Sciences
117418 Moscow, Profsoyuznaya 23
RUSSIA
TEL: (095)120-73-88
FAX: (095)310-7027
The critical environmental situation in Russia results from several factors, including large-scale industrialization, long-standing domination of the Soviet system of kolkhoses and sovkhoses, an energy-consuming type of economy, and the practical absence of the state environmental policies.
The main pollutants of water and soil are out-dated agricultural technologies, mainly fertilizers and pesticides. Despite cancellation of state subsidies for the production of fertilizers and the subsequent fall in its volume environmental pollution in agriculture is going on.
Another problem is the loss of soil fertility, manifested in the increase of erosion, salinization and oxidification of soils, and in the loss of black earth areas. The introduction of private property for land might have resulted in more cautious approach to the soil use but until now privatization in agriculture goes on extremely slow.
Environmental remediation includes monitoring, certification of products and activities, revision of the list of pollutants. One of the possible ways is development of alternative agricultural technologies: minimization of the use of chemical fertilizers and increased use of organic elements, and introducing biological methods of plant and livestock protection instead of pesticides. However, development of alternative (organic) agriculture in Russia is hindered by a lack of special services and specialists, by low environmental culture and poor financial basis.
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