Factors of Territorial Differentiation of the Agricultural Landscape and Prospects for the Preservation of Steppes in Belgorod Oblast

The rational organization of territories with agricultural landscapes, with consideration of the optimal spatial distribution of areas, which reduce agrogenic carbon emission, may favor a smaller carbon footprint of farming at the district level. The transition to carbon-neutral agriculture and the optimization of the agricultural landscape structure are especially urgent for such regions as Belgorod oblast, which provides 4.8% of the total value of farm products in Russia and where there are virgin areas of steppes that effectively regulate the carbon balance. Trends in the dynamics of farm lands in the structure of contemporary agricultural landscapes were revealed and compared to changes in the areas of preserved virgin steppes and lands of the nature reserve fund from an analysis of statistical parameters, cartographic and published data, reports from relevant departments and ministries, and materials of long-term terrain and experimental studies performed by the authors in Belgorod oblast at the intradistrict level in the period from 1990 to 2020. Agro-resource areas, including municipal districts with similar trends of change in areas of farm lands in the structure of agricultural landscapes, with the same farm specialization, and with identical changes in the natural, social, economic, and environmental situation have been identified: (1) an agro-resource area of industrial concentration near large cities in the western and central parts of the region; (2) an agro-resource area of conflicts between agricultural and industrial environmental management in the northern part of the region; (3) an agro-resource area of the southeastern agricultural and industrial part of the region. The key factors determining the potential of farm production and the trends in the dynamics of areas of agricultural landscapes have been identified within these areas. The percentage of specially protected natural areas that are significant for the reduction of agrogenic carbon emission is estimated, and their importance for the maintenance of carbon neutrality in modern economic development is indicated. The areas of agricultural landscapes within the specified agro-resource areas decrease to a smaller rate from the west to the northeast and southeast, but their agricultural–natural potential drops. This is explained by the enhanced effect of negative environmental factors, the insufficient introduction of an adaptive land-use system, the disproportion of investments in the agro-industrial complex, and the smaller number of working people employed in agriculture. It is shown that the conflicts between agricultural and industrial environmental management increase toward the east and northeast. The relationships between the key factors affecting agricultural use of landscapes and the dynamics of the areas of agricultural landscapes within the specified agro-resource areas are determined with the methods of mathematical statistics. The prospects of territorial protection of virgin steppe areas for solution of problems of carbon-neutral agriculture under the conditions of the revealed trends in the dynamics of areas of agricultural landscapes are analyzed. The revealed features of the transformation of the agricultural landscape of Belgorod oblast will enable the optimization of its structure to create a carbon-neutral agriculture and to increase the efficiency of the regional network of specially protected natural areas.