The Virgin and Idle Lands Program Reappraised

Climate and environmental change in arid Central Asia: Impacts, vulnerability, and adaptations

“…A canonical land change event of the 20th century was the Virgin Lands program of Khrushchev that resulted in the rapid transformation of 36 Mha of steppe into croplands for grain production (Douglas Jackson, 1962). Areal expansion of irrigated agriculture was not so dramatic, but the impact of decades of water withdrawals from the Syr Darya and Amu Darya to irrigate cotton in particular have desiccated and polluted the lands bordering in the Aral Sea (Glantz, 2005;Micklin, 2007;Saiko and Zonn, 2000).…”

What is absent from the current monitoring: Idleness of rural industrial land in suburban Shanghai

“…Land in descanso (at rest) in Mexican agricultural censuses (Winkelman & Hansen, 1971), the zalezh and perelog (long-term fallow) in Russia's virgin and idle lands program of 1954e1956 (Douglas Jackson, 1962) both belong to this agriculture-related category of land. Meanwhile, since early 1970s, the problem of vacant and derelict urban land has aroused widespread concern in Western countries, especially in large and old cities, where heavy industry has been either degraded or displaced, leaving the cities inactive for further development (Kivell, 1992).…”

Dryland belt of Northern Eurasia: contemporary environmental changes and their consequences

“…One of the biggest episodes of land cover change over the steppes of the DLB was the so-called 'Virgin Lands' development during 1954-1964, when the area of arable land in Kazakhstan was expanded from 7-8 to 21-23 million hectares. These changes were also spread across the steppe zone of Western Siberia and Southern Russia but were centered over Northern Kazakhstan (Jackson 1962). This massive conversion of grassland to cropland resulted in statistically significant increases of monthly surface air temperatures by 0.3°t o 0.5°C during the spring, summer, and autumn seasons and significant changes in ET (Yesserkepova 1988).…”