FORMATION OF AN IRRIGATED BIOENERGY AGROECOSYSTEM IN THE DRY STEPPE OF UKRAINE

Abstract

Goal. To analyze the potential of the basic enterprise in the Dry Steppe zone of Ukraine based on the formation of an irrigated bioenergy agroecosystem and to propose perspective systems of agricultural production. The relevance of the research is due to the specific development of the industry and modern challenges, first of all, such as the increase in the temperature regime, and the deficit of the climatic water balance, in which the efficiency of using the available potential becomes a priority direction. Methods. During the work, a combination of methods from general scientific as a hypothesis, observation, analysis, and synthesis to special ones such as data from field experiments, analytical research methods, dispersion, correlation, regression, and variation analysis methods, the method of multivariate computer simulation modeling were used. It worked out the parameters of enterprise production activity for the period 2010–2021, trends of climatic changes and agro-meteorological resources of the region, peculiarities of agricultural production in the study area, etc. for modeling the options for the development of the basic enterprise. Results. Results of the research have established that the potential of the base enterprise is designed to produce a larger volume of products than at the current stage; that depending on the amount of financial resources involved, all the considered development scenarios can be implemented in practice. The authors proposed the principles of the formation of balanced production of plant and animal food, industrial raw materials, and bioenergy on the example of 11 models using the multivariate simulation computer modeling of promising options for the development of the enterprise. At the initial stage (models 1–3) of improving the industry structure, it is proposed to include milk and meat processing modules in combination with measures to increase the productivity of the dairy herd. In models 4, 5, and 6, the volume of production of organic fertilizers will increase, and the feasibility of developing two crop rotations will be determined by the ratio between the cost of mineral fertilizers, which must be applied to distant fields of grain-grass crop rotation, and the costs of transporting feed and organic fertilizers. In the areas close to livestock farms, it is advisable to place a grain-forage 5-field crop rotation (650 ha) with the introduction of available manure, plowing of sunflower stalks, and application of N40P35K50. It is proposed to place a grain 4-field crop rotation (1724 ha) on remote fields with the introduction of N45P35K15 for the use of all by-products as fertilizer. According to the scenarios of Models 7 and 8, the productivity of the 6-field irrigated and 4-field non-irrigated crop rotation will provide the possibility of keeping 9.0–9.5 thousand conditional head of cattle. In addition, options for the development of the industry structure are modeled, which provide for the spread of the reclamation system both on all 5124 ha of the enterprise’s arable land and on part of the area using a combined irrigation system: the integration of sprinklers (2430 ha) and subsurface drip irrigation (600 ha) in combination with the construction of a sugar mill plant and a straw processing complex by briquetting. Conclusions. To create a highly efficient bioenergy production system, about $ 80 million of financial resources are needed with an expected profit of $ 9–14 thousand per hectare and a payback period of capital investments of 2 years. It is estimated that 8 to 10 years are needed for the independent development of the production system to a high level of profitability due to the purposeful use of its own growing profit. The analysis of the resource potential of the base enterprise carried out with using of multivariate computer modeling allows for the identification of internal production reserves of its use.