The Effect of Loss of the Most Fertile Agricultural Land on the Reduced Productivity of Strategic Commodities – Case Study

This report presents an analysis of productivity trends in a suburban beet-producing region impacted by the loss of agricultural land by land claims. The analysis was conducted in the model cadastral locality of Dolní Heršpice. In order to calculate the potential production of agricultural crops, the authors selected one sowing structure that has been applied starting from 1950 until present. The choice of particular crop succession was based on the exemplary sowing structure for beet-producing regions provided by the Central Institute for Supervising and Testing in Agriculture. The calculation of the potential production of agricultural crops was divided into three time intervals, 1950-1990, 1990-2006, and 2006-2019. In the period from 1950 to 2019, the studied locality underwent a loss of arable land of 145.19 ha. The yield in a particular time interval was derived from the selected sowing procedure and subsequently recalculated to the surface area of the lost arable land. The results show that in the time interval 1950-1990, the produced agricultural crops could have reached a total of 26,975.28 tons. In the period 1990-2006, the yield of crops could be 5,598.85 tons, and in the period 2006-2019, a total of 8,423.6 tons of agricultural crops could have been achieved in the studied locality. The total yield for the entire monitored period could represent 40,997.50 tons of agricultural crops. The productivity by hectare oriented cultivation in all the monitored time intervals to prevailing sugar beet and potatoes. The analysis was compared with the statistical data on the development of sowing areas, production and yields of the monitored crops in the Czech Republic. The presented study documents the trend of arable land loss and potential threat of insufficient production, particularly in the case of strategic commodities such as sugar beet in beet-producing regions.