Terms used in official statistics

View QR Code A A A save as pdf print

Medium Quality Land

Description of the concept that applied to: 29.11.2012


Definition:

Arable land is divided into good, medium, and bad quality land. Medium Quality Land - (medium fertile land) the following quality classes are distinguished, denoted by the symbols III b, IV a, IV b.



Prices of arable land and in private turnover (quarterly) are the purchase/sales prices, as well as lease prices for selected agricultural land designated for agricultural activity, recorded by the interviewers of the CSO.

Class III (b) - Arable soils of medium-good quality Class III (b) soils show similar properties as Class III (a) soils, but they more clearly display worse physiographical conditions, as well as inferior physical and chemical properties. The level of surface water is subject to greater fluctuations. These soils may be prone to erosion. Degradation symptoms, if they occur, are clearly apparent, some of them being more difficult to cultivate. Class III (b) soils, if not heavy, usually belong to very good rye complexes, while the heavier ones belong to good wheat or strong cereal-fodder complexes, or even to defective-wheat complexes. The following types of soils are classified as Class III (b) soils: brown, lessive and stagno-gleyic soils, black soils and intrazonal soils, as well as peat-muck and peat arable soils not requiring drainage (or drained). Class IV (a) - Arable soils of medium quality, higher This type of soil generates average crops, even if good agrotechniques are applied. Class IV (a) soils are sometimes found at worse land-surface locations, on the higher land slopes, and are often prone to water erosion. Heavy soils of this Class are abundant with nutritive components, and are characterised by high potential fertility, but they are not very pervious, cold, with low biological activity, and usually difficult to cultivate. In hot periods, they dry up, forming deep splits and cracks, or solids difficult to break down. When wet cultivation is applied, they spread. The majority of Class IV (a) soils show periodically too high levels of ground water and require drainage, after which they can be allocated to higher classes (even to Class II). These soils belong to strong cereal-fodder complexes, or to the defective wheat complexes, while the light soils in this Class are rye-potato soils. This Class covers the following types of soil: brown, lessive, podsolic, and stagno-gleyic soils of higher quality, as well as marshy Chernozemic soils, heavy alluvial soils, intrazonal soils, drained peat and peat-muck soils. Class IV (b) - Arable soils of medium quality, lower Class IV (b) soils show similar properties as Class IV (a) soils, but they are more defective (being either too dry or too humid). Heavy soils which belong to this Class are usually marshy, too heavy to cultivate, and located in bad physiographic conditions. Some types of these soils are superficially littered with a layer which is too pervious, which is why they are too dry. In other types, the level of ground waters remains too high for too long. Heavy soils which belong to this Class are classified to the cereal-fodder or defective wheat complexes. Heavy and flat soils on pervious layers usually belong to the agricultural rye complexes, usually of good quality. Light Class IV (b) soils are, in principle, rye-potato soils, though they often show vulnerability to drought.


up

Newsletter