Land resources of the Republic of Buryatia: the current state, use and development trends

The article deals with the current state of use of agricultural lands irrigated and drained agricultural lands in the Republic of Buryatia. Most of the agricultural lands privatized in the 1990s (more than 850 thousand hectares) are not used for its intended purpose, in fact, they are abandoned. The share of actually irrigated land is only 39% of the total area of registered irrigated land. According to official statements, over the past five years, the process of reducing the area of agricultural land has been suspended, but it is still too early to talk about the full use of the potential of agricultural land, reclaimed land in the republic. Since 2014, the government of Buryatia has started to introduce a procedure for the seizure of land in the ownership of municipalities, so we can hope that the issues of abandoned lands in the republic will be resolved.