Land Resources. Their Role in Nature and Human Life.
Land resources refer to lands that are systematically used or suitable for use for economic purposes and differ by natural-historical characteristics.
The concept of "land" primarily encompasses the relief of a given area, which from the perspective of human development can be convenient, inconvenient, or unsuitable. Convenient land is flat territory favorable for cultivation, irrigation, construction of roads, channels, housing, etc. The relief of the land can be mountainous, inconvenient for irrigation, the use of agricultural machinery, and difficult to cultivate due to height, fragmentation, and slope of the terrain. Finally, land can be completely unsuitable, extremely fragmented by ravines and ditches, representing a rocky elevation, solonchaks, swamps, etc.
The second important quality of land is its fertility, meaning the presence of a good soil cover, the ability to reproduce the natural resources of the land. To maintain these qualities, it is essential to protect, first of all, the relief from destruction, erosion, etc. According to soil scientist E.V. Kovda (1982), the formation of a fertile soil layer just 2-3 cm thick can take 2-3 centuries.
Soil is the greatest gift of nature, the foundation of life and the well-being of the people, the source of our society, and the main part of land resources. Just as in the distant past, so in the present, humans obtain everything necessary for sustaining life from the soil. Therefore, it is always necessary to care for it and do everything to leave it unchanged or improved for future generations.
The land resources of the Chui Valley are limited in area and quality. The land resources of Kyrgyzstan are also limited. Of the total 146 thousand km² of land fund, 93 thousand km² are used in agriculture, including more than 1.3 million hectares of arable land. As of 1995, the majority of agricultural land consists of natural pastures covering 9 million 89 thousand hectares. Almost all the best valley lands have been developed. As a result of population growth and systematic alienation of land for non-agricultural needs, there is a reduction in the area of arable land per capita. This indicator averages 0.44 hectares worldwide, while in Kyrgyzstan it is 0.75 hectares. Furthermore, the size of arable land per resident has decreased over the past 20 years (National Report on the State of the Environment, 1997, p.34) from 0.41 to 0.3 hectares, including irrigated land from 0.27 to 0.195 hectares. By 2030, it is projected to be 0.18 and 0.1 hectares, respectively.
