Agricultural techniques for growing safflower, adaptive to the natural and climatic zone, is an important and necessary measure for increasing yields and improving the quality of oil seeds of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L). Biological and morph physiological characteristics of the culture and its variety determine the technological methods for its cultivation and production of oil seeds. Safflower is a crop that is of great value and is able to replace sunflower. The agricultural technology of its cultivation in the Lower Volga region is constantly being studied; however, safflower plant protection methods are not well understood. Experiments to study the effectiveness of safflower protection methods were carried out in 2017-2019 on the territory of the experimental field of the Federal Research Center for Agro-Ecology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where light chestnut soils with a humus content of 1.2-2.0% and pH = 7.8 predominate. Ways of protecting safflower were considered and the effectiveness of seed dressing with a mixture of Vincit 1.5 l/t + Fertigrain Start 0.5 l/t was revealed. This option was the most profitable (16.5%), with a yield of 1.2 t/ha. The control option using a mixture of Vincit + Azotovit + Phosphatovit 1.5 l/t + 2.2 l/t + 2.2 l produced a yield of 0.8 t/ha and was not profitable. Keywords: agricultural technology, safflower, productivity, oil content of seeds, plant protection, root rot, pesticides, agrochemicals

For efficient grain production in arid climate, producers need a choice of winter crop varieties. For this purpose, an ecological test of varieties of winter wheat and winter barley was carried out on experimental fields typical for the climatic conditions of the Lower Volga region of Russia. Plots with experimental crops, with an area of ​​10 m2, were located by the method of successive repetitions in 3-fold repetition. By the ecological test, varieties of winter crops of various originators were sown, according to the predecessor - black fallow, with seeds with a field germination rate of 90-95%, with a seeding rate of 3.5 million pcs. ha, to a depth of 5-6 cm. There were 16 varieties of winter wheat in the test, Don 93 served as the standard variety. Five varieties of winter barley were tested, the standard variety was Volzhsky 1. The obtained results of the yield of varieties were processed by analysis of variance to assess their yield. It has been established that in the technological process of production of grain of winter crops, the value of the variety is significant and has a share of 72.4%, the remaining factors of production account for 27.5%. The leader in terms of winter wheat yield (8.5 t/ha) was the Tarasovskaya variety. The lowest yield in the test was in the Governor of the Don variety 5.7 t/ha. High yield of winter wheat in the variety of local selection Kamyshanka 3 was 8.1 t/ha. The maximum biological yield of 6.4 t/ha was obtained for the winter barley variety Buran, mainly due to the larger number of productive shoots 440 pcs/m2 and the largest grain mass per spike 1.46 g variety Voskhod 4.9 t/ha.

The Volgograd region is one of the largest regions producing sunflower oil seeds. In the approved State program of the Volgograd region “Development of agriculture and regulation of the markets of agricultural products, raw materials and food” until 2025, targets for the production and sale of sunflower seeds are fixed, and within the framework of the federal project “Export of agricultural products”, the share of the region in the volume of Russian exports of oil and fat products by 2024. Purpose. Analyze the possibility of meeting the fixed targets in the state plans. Materials and methods. In the process of writing the article, publicly available documents of state authorities, information on agricultural production of the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation and the Volgograd region were used. The work was carried out using the graphical-analytical method and simple extrapolation. Microsoft Office Excel 8 was used for the calculation work. Results. In 2020, over 709 thousand hectares of sunflower crops were located in the region, and the yield of its seeds was 1.53 t/ha. The article considers the dynamics of the current state of sunflower seed production in the Volgograd region and the resource base on the basis of which the sub-sector operates. A forecast has been made, where it is determined that the indicator of the volume of sunflower seeds produced will be successfully achieved. Two scenarios are considered, according to which the development of sunflower seed production is possible and the results of their implementation are determined. Conclusion. After analyzing the current state of production of sunflower oil seeds, we can conclude that the level of their production enshrined in the State Program will be successfully achieved. Scenarios for the implementation of the established goals are proposed.

Safflower is a crop capable of growing and forming a crop of seeds to obtain vegetable oils suitable for use for food and technical purposes. Agricultural land in the Volgograd region of Russia is insufficient in soil moisture, therefore, for a guaranteed harvest and the production of vegetable oils, dyed safflower is sown. Moreover, the safflower crop is relatively new for farmers for which various agro-technological areas are to be explored for cost-effective cultivation of the crop. Therefore, this study was conducted during2020 - 2021on an experimental plot, with light chestnut soils, safflower was sown for research according to its predecessor - black fallow. The climate of the area where the experiments were carried out is considered arid, with rare, unproductive precipitation, the HTC in the summer season is 0.1-0.3, the soil moisture reserve in the meter layer is 87.2 mm, the vegetative period of safflower plants is up to 124 days. Since autumn, the main tillage was carried out - disking, in the spring, spring harrowing in two tracks, followed by pre-sowing cultivation. The varieties of dye safflower included in the experiment were Alexandrite, Zavolzhsky 1, Volgogradsky 15 andKamyshinsky73. The experimental crop was sown using three row spacings of 15, 30 and 45 cm. Three seeding rates viz., 250, 350 and 450 thousand seeds/ha were used for each variety under different row spacings. The experimental variants were replicated three times. The yield data of safflower was analyzed using the Microsoft Office Excel program subjected to dispersion analysis with a purpose to establish the optimal methods for sowing safflower in the light chestnut soils of Nizhnevolzhsky region. The study revealed that the highest yield (1.13 t/ha) was recorded in safflower variety Alexandrite with a row width of 15 cm, and the seeding rate of 350 thousand seeds/ha. The lowest yield of 0.61 t/ha was recorded in variety Kamyshinsky 73 under wide row spacing of 45 cm, with a seeding rate of 450 thousand seeds/ha. The results highlight that the seeding rate and variety have an impact of 19% and 15%, respectively. The impact of interaction between seeding rates and row spacing son the yield of dye safflower is 0.02%. As a result of the analysis of variance, it was determined that the significance of row spacing’s is 44.68% and varieties 48.72%, with an error of 0.049888889. The value of the factors incorporated in the study has a significant impact on the yield of dye varieties of safflower.

Sunflower oilseed production is a profitable activity for agricultural enterprises. Volgograd region specific natural and climatic conditions for growing oilseeds and a developed material and technical base. The share of oilseeds in the production of crop products is about 20%. Comparable national and world prices for sunflower oilseeds, we will determine the competitiveness of oilseeds, applying the OECD methodology, that in the Volgograd region the equality coefficient is 0.62, which means that agricultural producers sell their products at lower prices than prices than traders in foreign food markets [3,6]. In the open market, the domestic producer will be non-competitive foreign [12]). One of the ways to increase the competitiveness of oilseeds produced in the region will be the rational use of production potential. Economy is studied in modern economic conditions by foreign and domestic agricultural scientists [1, 13]. It was determined that the results of the statistical analysis of the average yield of sunflower according to the data of 23 favourable crops. The model included the following production factors: capital supply, energy efficiency, tractor supply, labour productivity, soil score, which influence their competitiveness. It has been established that the most influential factors of the production factor are the soil and climatic conditions of the region, strategic (y controlled) factor - productivity, depending on the level of technological development of production.