Soil erosion and pesticide pollution
The legacy of rice cultivation in the Krasnodar area
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
During the second half of the 20th century, in the Kuban region of southern Russia, a vast agriculture infrastructure that used hydraulic engineering was established over an area the size of Portugal, with the aim of enforcing rice cultivation there. The toxins were quickly washed out and ultimately became a part of the food cycle. Incidents of cancer increased, as did malignant diseases of the lung and the digestive system. During the 1990s, the agricultural industry collapsed, but the damage to the environment remained. For 20 years, the agricultural sector in Kuban has been experiencing an upturn – and is once again riddled with corruption while destroying the environment. No lessons have been learned from the experience of the Soviet era.
(Osteuropa 7-9/2020, pp. 319–330)