Agricultural triangle
 
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Corner points of the agricultural triangle |
The agrarian triangle was the agriculturally usable large region in the Soviet Union . It extended in the area between Saint Petersburg , Odessa and Irkutsk (on Lake Baikal) in the east. It covered approximately three million square kilometers. In the west it reached its greatest vertical extent and stretched towards the east in a wedge shape, hence the name triangle .
To the north of the Agricultural Triangle, extreme cold, long winters and permafrost hinder agriculture; south of it, intensive agriculture without irrigation causes problems. In the north, the agricultural triangle is delimited by the boreal coniferous forest (also called taiga), which is so dense that no sunlight reaches the ground. In addition to grain , sugar beets , maize and sunflowers are grown in the agricultural triangle .
In the northern part there are the less fertile podsol soils , in the southern former forest steppes and steppes the fertile, powerful black earth soils formed . In the past, this southern area was also known as the “ granary of Europe”. One problem here is the soil erosion caused by winds and precipitation ; Cold winters with little snow as well as hot dry summers and storms also reduce the harvest yield. It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that the intensification of agriculture began as part of “new land campaigns”.
In the south, however, it is very dry. One speaks there of the climatic dry line .
In the Soviet Union, agriculture outside the agricultural triangle was still possible on the Black Sea, in the Caucasus with wine and fruit and with cotton in Central Asia .