Cultivation of agricultural crops using direct seeding technology in the extremely arid zone of the Stavropol Territory

. Of the 245.7 thousand hectares cultivated in the Stavropol Territory using direct sowing technology, 66.5 % are in the arid zone, while this technology is not used in the extremely arid zone. The purpose of the work is to establish the possibility and effectiveness of cultivating crops without tillage in the extremely arid zone of the Stavropol Territory. Methods. In field trials conducted under the production conditions of Oktyab’rskiy CJSC of the Levokumskiy District, the objects of research were spring crops (peas, oil flax, sunflower), which were cultivated using direct sowing technology. After their harvesting, the soil was not cultivated and winter wheat was sown. As a control in direct sowing technology, there was pure chemical steam in which no soil was cultivated and weeds were controlled by the chemical method. The second control was pure early steam, in which weeds were combated by cultivating the soil according to the technology recommended by scientific institutions in the region Results. It was found that in abnormally dry conditions during the experiments, precipitation in winter and during the growing season provides an economically significant yield of spring crops with a profitability of production of peas 27.8 %, oilseed flax 37.9 and sunflower 47.8 %. The yield of winter wheat for these predecessors was 23.4, respectively; 19.5 and 21.5 c/ha; for pure and chemical steam, 28.0 and 28.5 c/ha were obtained. In total, over 2 years, the most cost-effective was sowing winter wheat after sunflower, where the highest profitability of production was achieved – 61.4 %, in the crop rotation link, where peas and oilseed flax were the predecessors of winter wheat, it amounted to 58.2 and 49.6 %. The lowest profitability of winter wheat cultivation in pure and chemical pairs is 47.7 and 48.4 %.