The Republic of Armenia is a country with limited land resources. Its total land area is only 2.974 million hectares, which amounts to just 0.14 hectares per capita. By this indicator, Armenia ranks among the countries with the lowest land availability in the world.
Land suitable for agricultural use accounts for 71.3% of the country’s territory, while arable land makes up only 15.2%. On average, 0.657 hectares of agricultural land fall to one inhabitant.
Despite its small size, Armenia’s soil cover is remarkably diverse due to the wide range of natural and climatic conditions. The territory of the republic is mainly composed of sedimentary and volcanic rocks, and various soil types have developed on the products of their weathering.
In Armenia, 14 genetic soil types, 27 subtypes, as well as numerous genera, species, and varieties are identified. Of these 14 soil types, 7 are zonal, while the others are interzonal.
Among the zonal soils, the most widespread are gray semi-desert soils, chestnut soils, chernozems, meadow-steppe soils, and mountain-meadow soils. In the forest zone of the Lesser Caucasus, forest brown, carbonate, forest gray, and meadow-steppe soils prevail.
Soil types change regularly with elevation, forming a clearly expressed altitudinal zonation. Gray soils dominate in the lowland areas, while light chestnut soils are typical of the foothills. Higher up, mountain chestnut soils and chernozems are widespread, with forest gray and forest brown soils occurring locally. At even greater elevations, mountain-meadow soils become dominant, and in summit and humid areas, sod-peat soils are also formed.
In certain landforms, as a result of excessive moisture and human activity, azonal soils have developed, including meadow-gray, irrigated, meadow-chernozem, river-valley terrace, saline-alkaline, ancient hydromorphic alkaline, and weakly developed lakeside soils.
This richness and mosaic character of the soil cover make Armenia a uniquely diverse country in terms of natural conditions and land use.
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