Methods of regulation in the field of protection and rational use of especially valuable agricultural lands, including suburban areas

The article analyzes important issues of defining particularly valuable agricultural lands in the federal districts of the European part of the Russian Federation. It considers approaches to classifying the most fertile agricultural lands as particularly valuable and including them in the list of lands whose use is prohibited for other purposes. A stable indicator of land suitability over time is identified as a criterion for classifying lands as particularly valuable, which allows classifying lands into 4 groups, including 9 classes depending on the type of soil. It is revealed that in 41 out of 53 subjects of the European part of Russia, a list of areas of particularly valuable productive lands has been established. A comparative analysis of the arrays of particularly valuable fertile lands identified in the subjects of the Russian Federation with the areas calculated by the authors using the developed methodology is performed. The specific weight of the areas of particularly valuable agricultural lands in five regions of the European part of Russia is determined: Volga, North Caucasian, Southern, Northwestern and Central Federal Districts. The areas of highly productive agricultural lands have been identified for these territories of the country, which are proposed for inclusion in the list in order to classify them as particularly valuable lands, including those located in suburban areas. The study has shown that the share of particularly valuable agricultural lands calculated by the authors is higher than that established by law in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. In conclusion, the authors propose expanding the criteria for classifying agricultural lands as particularly valuable lands and also give recommendations for the allocation of particularly valuable lands in the regions of Russia by developing and subsequently using a universal regulation for the allocation of particularly valuable lands for all constituent entities.