INFLUENCE OF IRRIGATION TECHNIQUES ON SOIL STRUCTURE AND PRODUCTIVITY OF SPRING WHEAT CROPS IN THE DRY-STEPPE VOLGA REGION

Irrigation plays a key role in preserving land fertility and ensuring the growth of crop yields in the arid conditions of the dry-steppe zone of the Volga region. This factor primarily limits the volume and stability of crop production. The article presents the results of studies on the study of various irrigation techniques - watering along the strips and irrigation by sprinkling. An analysis was carried out on the effect of the applied irrigation methods on the soil structure and productivity of spring wheat crops. It was found that irrigation methods had different effects on the factors of changing the water-physical properties of the soil and the spring wheat crop. The most effective in terms of productivity of spring wheat grain - a yield of 1.74 t/ha was detected during irrigation with sprinkling using wide-grip sprinklers. Irrigation in strips is less expensive, but the productivity of spring wheat is less with this type of irrigation - 1.16 t/ha. When watering along the strips immediately after the first watering, the overall duty cycle decreases. When watering by sprinkling, water-resistant units pass into the category of sprayed only by the end of the vegetation of spring wheat. Thus, strip watering had the most negative impact on the structure of dark chestnut soil under spring wheat crops. With this version of irrigation, erosion processes begin to develop to a greater extent.