The indirect approach is mainly used to assess the forest-growing potential of lands in the forestry of Ukraine. For these purposes, a comparative ecological (forest typological) method is used to assess soil conditions according to their forest growth effect. The species composition of the forest stand and its productivity are the main indicators of the forest growth effect. The undoubted advantages of this method are high forestry value, low labour intensity and cost, and the main disadvantages are the subjectivity of determining the types of forest conditions (especially derivatives and artificial plantations), its insufficient environmental sensitivity, and the difficulty of applying to places where there is no forest vegetation. The aim of the study was to quantify the quality of forest land and develop markers of the forest-growing potential of soils. The studies were carried out by synthesizing two methodological approaches – forest typological as the leading method for assessing the potential of habitats and direct study of soils (field and analytical). The package of markers was developed to assess forest potential of soils based on the establishment of a correlation between the productivity of forest stands (height, quality class) and soil indicators (thickness of the humus part of the profile, pH, content of clay particles, humus, total and exchange forms of N, P, K, Ca, Mg). The package of markers depends on the soil type and consists of the following soil indicators: the content of particles of physical clay (d<0.01 mm), the thickness of the humus part, as well as the content of humus, N, Ca, K, and Mg. A gradual increase in their quantitative values leads to increase in the forest productivity of the soil and, as a result, the productivity of the forest stand.

Declaration data of farming land and crop are analyzed in the article. Ukmergė district is chosen for the more detailed analysis. Statistical data of farmers and other land users are analyzed in the article; the declaration data of farming land and crop are analyzed and mathematical statistical dependence between the declared area and soil productivity index is determined. The results show that there are 2,506 registered farms in Ukmergė district and they manage the area of 18,430.07 hectares. The average parcel size amount to 7.35 ha. The number of farming persons in Ukmergė district as well as in Lithuania have considerably decreased during 7 years period. In 2014, the number of farming persons was by 38.12 percent smaller in Ukmergė district and by 41.24 percent in the whole territory of Lithuania compared to 2007. The comparison of the declaration data of 2011 with the data of 2014 shows that the declared area of farming land and crop in Ukmergė district has increased by 2.46 percent although the number of received applications has decreased by 22.2 percent. During the period of 2011– 2014 the majority of assessed applications were received in 2013, i.e., 99.04 percent of all applications received that year. It shows that the size of land parcels has increased. Cereal crops (oat, wheat, triticale, barley, rye, buckwheat and corn) composed the major part of the declared areas in Ukmergė district in 2013-2014 (48.84 percent of all declared crops in 2013 and 53.79 percent in 2014). The analysed agricultural holding “Egvila” during 2011–2014 period declared the area of approximately 272 hectares annually. This company grows white clover for seed, timothy for seed and cumin. Direct payments are received for all land areas. The analysis shows that farmers generally declared their own land. The analysis of the declared land distribution in Ukmergė district by land property right shows that 75 percent of the declared land are private and the remaining 25 percent are leased either from the state or from natural persons.

As result of land reform in Russian Federation the public administration of agricultural land has been totally transformed. Land reform was carried out in order to solve problems in the sphere of agriculture, housing construction, ecology, creating a plurality of land ownership forms, introducing land use payments, etc. The decision to cancel monopoly of state ownership in land and to create institution of private property was made. The land redistribution projects for each farm were made, where stock of shares, stock of land redistribution and stock of land administered by previous soviet village councils was represented. The example of the Samara region was used to develop mechanisms for transfer of public land to private ownership. Currently, the situation with use of the land in many agricultural enterprises can be considered as unsatisfactory due to unsystematic economic activity − there are no or are not implemented scientifically based crop rotations, natural soil fertility is not taken into account, there is no modern cartographic material indicating the size of the fields, degree of slope and degree of erosion. Significant deterioration of the agro-ecological situation and the spread of negative processes on arable land require changes in national land policy and development of comprehensive measures to organize rational use of land. In the near future, a significant modernization of national and federal land legislation is planned, which will affect all subjects of the Russian Federation in terms of the management and use of agricultural land.