Quality of soils used for the organic vegetable production in the province of Vojvodina

Abstract

With the introduction of the organic agriculture legislation in our countrz there are now adequate legal conditions for the transition to organic agricultural production, which is becoming increasingly popular and profitable in the rest of Europe. Another prerequisite for the transition to such production is soil quality. During 2002, as a part of the project Programme on Soil Protection, Management and Utilisation - Characterisation and Management of Soils Used for Production of High-Value Vegetable Foods which was carried out under the auspices of the Ministry of Science Technologies and Development of the Republic of Serbia, a study was conducted on agricultural soils in the province of Vojvodina on a total area of approximately 1,200 ha wherein 199 soil samples were taken in total from the production plots of four major vegetable-producing companies in the province, namely Bag & Deko, B. Gradište, PIK Bečej, Bečej, DP PD Maglić Maglić and Aleva, Novi Kneževac. The samples were analysed for their basic chemical properties, trace element and heavy metal contents and levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) at the Laboratory for Soil Agroecology and Fertilisers of the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops in Novi Sad. According to the Official Rulebook of Organic Plant Production Methods published in the Official Gazette FRY issue 51/02, four of the samples exceeded the MTC (Maximum Tolerable Concentrations) for Cu, 15 for Cr and 80 for Ni (in the case of Ni, the high number of toxic samples was due to a very low MTC threshold for this element). Only three out of the 102 samples analysed for PAH levels had values above the MTC for PAHs.

Stvaranjem zakonske regulative za organsku poljoprivredu, u našoj zemlji su se stekli adekvatni uslovi za prelazak na ovaj sve popularniji i unosniji vid poljoprivrede u Evropi, sa druge strane polazna tačka za prelazak na organsku biljnu proizvodnju jeste kavalitet zemljišta. Tokom 2002. godine u okviru Projekta "Program zaštite, uređenje i korišćenja zemljišta Karakterizacija i uređenje zemljišta za proizvodnju visokovredne hrane u povrtarstvu" pod pokroviteljstvom Ministarstva za nauku, tehnologije i razvoj Republike Srbije izvršena su ispitivanja poljoprivrednog zemljišta na teritoriji Vojvodine sa površine od oko 1.200 ha (ukupno 199 uzoraka zemljišta), a sa proizvodnih parcela četiri velika proizvođača povrća u Vojvodini - Bag i Deko, B. Gradište, PIK Bečej, DP PD Maglić i Aleva, Novi Kneževac. Uzorci su analizirani na osnovna hemijska svojstva, sadržaj mikroelemenata i teških metala i sadržaj policikličnih aromatičnih ugljovodonika (PAH-ova) u Laboratoriji za agroekologiju Zavoda za zemljište, agroekologiju i đubriva pri Institutu za ratarstvo i povrtarstvo u Novom Sadu. Prema Pravilniku o metodama organske biljne proizvodnje Službeni list SRJ, 2002, četiri uzorka prelaze MDK za sadržaj Cu, 15 uzoraka za sadržaj Cr i 80 za sadržaj Ni (razlog je veoma strog kriterijum MDK u pogledu sadržaja za Ni). Od ukupno 102 analizirana uzoraka zemljišta na sadržaj PAH-ova, utvrđen je sadržaj preko MDK za samo tri uzorka.