Urban agglomerations are actively developing concentrations of populated areas, which sometimes consist of ten's or even hundreds of populated areas, including rural settlements. Within the agglomeration, strong economic, social, labor and other connections are formed. At present, the trends of consolidation of cities into large agglomerated spaces are the subject of discussions at various forums, congresses and conferences on global scale. The processes of urbanization, expansion of settlements, population increase are always closely connected with the conservation and use of agricultural land, which makes the topic of research relevant. The article describes the practice of use of agricultural land of the largest agglomerations: the principles of using especially valuable land are presented, methods of preserving the territories used for agricultural purposes are analysed. Details of conservation and use of agricultural land are discussed in the article on the example of the Samara-Tolyatti agglomeration -the largest polycentric agglomeration of the Russian Federation. On the territory of this agglomeration, there is especially valuable agricultural land, significant area elements of the natural-ecological framework, which should be protected. Economic assessment of the use of agricultural land within the boundaries of agglomeration has been made and comparative analysis of use of agricultural land located within the boundaries of settlements has been presented. Also the features of the use of agricultural land depending on distance up to agglomeration centre have been discussed. The result of investigation is the development of conceptual proposals, on the basis of which it is possible to create an integrated methodology for evaluating alternatives of use of agricultural land for the purpose of rational land management in the agglomeration.

Abstract. One of the tools for management of balanced development of rural areas is spatial planning -a kind of activity regarding to organization of use and protection of land at the national, regional and local level. The issues of conservation and restoration of natural resources in rural areas are extremely relevant for Ukraine. Main environmental problems in rural areas are -degradation of agricultural land, loss of biodiversity and pollution of land, overground and underground water. In recent years a new environmental problem has emerged − desertification. The aim of the article is to investigate the possibilities of land use planning at regional and local level in order to improve the ecological situation in rural areas of Ukraine. To achieve the goal, scientific approaches and methods are used -system approach, system-analytical method, method of correlationregression analysis, abstract-logical method, etc. Investigating the existing system of territorial planning of Ukraine, there is determined discrepancy between the tasks of urban planning and land management in the sphere of solving environmental issues of land use. Also a negative trend in land conservation measures is noticed there, while the land degradation in the form of soil erosion is significant and widely distributed in the country. To solve the environmental problems of land use, it is proposed to introduce landscape planning as an important part of integrated management of land use in rural areas. There are described the stages of implementation of landscape planning. It is proposed to develop a landscape program and a framework landscape plan at the regional level, and a landscape plan at the local level. In general, landscape planning should be interlinked with spatial planning as a basis for solving issues of conservation and restoration of natural landscapes, formation of cultural landscapes and management of landscapes.

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Abstract. Land resources are the basis of economic and territorial development of any country. Land reform in the Russian Federation started in 1990-1991, its goal was to solve a wide range of issues in the field of agriculture, the formation and development of local government, housing construction, and ecology. At the same time, social and economic transformations were carried out, private ownership of land and payment for land use was introduced, and the development of the land market was stimulated. Now more than 25 years have passed since the beginning of the land reform and it is possible to sum up some of its results. The studied regionSamara region -is located in the southeast of the European territory of Russia in the chernozem zone, therefore the agricultural land is predominant in the land stock and the main part of the territory is occupied by agrolandscapes. The purpose of this article is to analyse the changes in agrolandscapes of the Samara region for the post-Soviet period as one of the results of the land reform. A significant decrease in the fertility of agrolandscapes soil was noted. There was a decrease in humus reserves in the arable horizon, which is associated with decline in the cropping culture, the prevalence of extensive management practices, and, consequently, a decrease in the amount of organic and mineral fertilizers used. The annual loss of humus in the region is 0.4 t / ha. The areas of waterlogged soils causing delays in land treatment have significantly increased (by 9506 ha). The area of secondary saline land decreased due to the reduction of irrigated land and the area of disturbed landdue to lack of land reclamation. Due to the development of pipeline transport and oil-extracting industries in the region, in many areas there is land contaminated with oil products. The causes of negative processes in agrolandscapes are studied and measures for solving identified problems are proposed.

Abstract. The land stock of the world is 13.4 thousand millions hectares or 26 % of the surface of the Earth. Agricultural land appropriate for food production occupies 4.8 thousand millions hectares; arable land takes up only 1.4 thousand millions hectares or 30 % of the agricultural land. For 100 years, the area of agricultural land increased only by 640 million hectares (less than 15 %), and in recent years it is declining. In Russia, area of the arable land is exploited on average at 70 %, while in the world the arable land has been used on average at 80 %. At present, the urgent problem is to increase the efficiency of use of land resources for stable development of all forms of agricultural enterprises, which have different status of ownership and management. Improvement of the use of natural resources, including land, in the agro-industrial complex is associated with the solution of two interrelated tasks: the development of a methodology for reliable assessment of the resource potential of agricultural land and the search for ways to use them most effectively. The opinions of many researchers about the proposed methods for assessing land resources often are essentially different. This leads to the fact that there are no unified established indicators for determining the efficiency of land use. Nevertheless, in the circumstances of market relations it is relevant and expedient to apply a single scientifically grounded system for assessing agricultural land for organizing its efficient use. The study showed that in Samara region about 72 % of the arable land area is used for production of agricultural products, but it is necessary to find reserves to increase the efficiency of land use. Assessment of the efficiency of agricultural land use in the Samara region, a comparative analysis of the indicators of this region with the indicators of other subjects of the Russian Federation and the country in general created an opportunity to identify features of the use of agricultural land, highlighted problems and factors that determine the effectiveness of its use.Keywords: agrarian sector, agricultural land, efficiency, farming, land stock. IntroductionAgricultural land is the basis of the agrarian sector of the economy, where it occupies the largest proportion in the total area of land stock. Land resources are the subject and means of work in the agricultural sector, which play a very significant role. Rational use, assessment of the effectiveness of their involvement in the production cycle is an important component of ensuring the food security of the country and the region.Increasing the efficiency of agricultural land use is an important component of improving the territorial organization of agriculture and the formation of hierarchical systems of the agrarian sector of the economy. In modern conditions the use of land is considered effective, when it increases the profit, amount of products from area unit, quality of products, fertility of soil, but reduces the production costs. It is very important that t...