ИСТИНА

Geographic Informational Systems (GIS) are widely used in the land registry in many foreign countries. The GIS are used by individual households for soil cultivation, for sowing and for other production related operations. The GIS are taking into account the micro-features of the territory and serves to develop so-called high precision farming – ‘precision agriculture’. In our opinion, it is very promising to use GIS technologies and solutions to perform such practical tasks as monitoring of the balance of nutrients in soils, assessment and prediction of efficiency of fertilizers use, as well as determination of the optimal doses, timing and methods of the fertilizers introduction. The tasks listed above are especially relevant for management of large territories with diverse agricultural conditions, which are particularly characteristic for Russia. In the process of transforming of the agrarian economy from planned and regulated to market driven, the models similar to GIS can come to be an important tool for decision making for both agricultural producers and for mineral fertilizers industry, because such models give a possibility to evaluate the productive potential of regional markets. The Brazilian project (under realization), which uses GIS technology to determine the balance of potassium in the agricultural systems of the country can be taken as an example. The project was based on a joint research program "Fertilize Brazil”, which was conducted by the International Potash Institute (IPI) and by the National Center for the Soils Research of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA Solos).