The ongoing conflict has inflicted long-lasting harm on Ukraine's soils, presenting a challenge that extends beyond the immediate impact. Large swathes of land, rendered unsuitable for agricultural use due to countless craters, tons of scrap metal, carcinogenic waste, and pollution by heavy metals and chemical substances, are facing a dire future. However, innovative solutions offer a glimmer of hope in mitigating these effects, if not fully reversing the damage.

The Invisible Threat Below

The devastation of agricultural fields within conflict zones is startlingly visible from above, thanks to drone technology. The landscape is marred by numerous craters, tracks from heavy machinery, burn scars, and military encampments. Yet, the surface damage is just the tip of the iceberg. Attempts to smooth over the topsoil cannot erase the contamination from fuel spills, expended munitions, and chemical warfare agents—pollutants that can degrade soil quality for decades.

Soils soaked with hydrocarbons lose their permeability, oxygen is displaced, and vital biochemical and microbiological processes are disrupted. This leads to a deteriorated water-air regime and nutrient cycle, adversely affecting plant root nutrition, growth, and development, ultimately leading to plant death. The visible signs of fuel contamination may vanish, but the repercussions persist over years.

Explosions may seem to only pollute the air, but in reality, harmful substances settle back to the earth in precipitation, accumulating in the soil. Components like sulfur from munitions, transforming into sulfuric acid upon contact with rain, can devastate soil ecosystems, killing millions of organisms crucial for a healthy topsoil layer. Toxic elements such as lead, cadmium, arsenic, and mercury leach from ammunition and weapons into the soil, where plants absorb them, often in concentrations far exceeding safety norms. Other elements like zinc and nickel can significantly hinder crop growth, posing a hidden danger to food security and export potentials if not promptly addressed.

Combatting Soil Contamination

The mobility and migration of toxic elements in soil are influenced by various factors, including acidity, organic matter content, and texture. Acidic soils, including fertile chernozems, inadvertently facilitate the absorption of harmful elements by plants over many years. Identifying and mitigating these risks requires a comprehensive approach:

Land Monitoring: Leveraging advanced technologies like high-precision satellite data and drone-assisted magnetometric surveys can help map and quantify the extent of damage across potentially affected areas. This is crucial for identifying metal and explosive hazards for removal and demining efforts.

Soil and Crop Monitoring: Continuous monitoring is essential until it's confirmed that contamination no longer affects plants and produce.

Agrotechnical Methods: Immediate steps for improving conditions in contaminated areas include:

• Soil Tillage: Combat soil compaction caused by explosions and military vehicles through deep plowing and other cultivation methods, which can enhance the root zone and improve soil physical properties.
• Crop Rotation: Selecting crops based on their resistance to pollutants and their potential for accumulating contaminants is vital for both economic and ecological reasons.
• Phytoremediation: Utilizing plants capable of extracting pollutants, such as hemp for heavy metals, can gradually restore soil health.
• Microbiological Preparations: Introducing microbial preparations can help reduce the uptake of toxic elements by plants, aiding their growth and minimizing crop contamination.
• Chemical Amelioration: Applying lime or gypsum can reduce the mobility of heavy metals and radionuclides in acidic soils, improving environmental safety.
• Fertilization: Organic fertilizers can form complexes with pollutants, reducing their mobility and mitigating the effects of contamination.
• Reclamation: For severely damaged soils, options include mechanical incorporation or removing the contaminated layer and replacing it with clean soil, though natural regeneration may be more feasible in some cases.

Conclusion

Addressing the environmental aftermath of war starts with identifying the extent of damage and tailoring remediation efforts to the specific needs and conditions of each site. As Yaroslav Boyko, CEO of AgriLab and official representative of the International Society of Precision Agriculture (ISPA) in Ukraine, emphasizes, the path to recovery involves integrating technological solutions and environmental strategies to ensure the ecological security and agricultural productivity of war-impacted regions.