The relevance of the topic of scientific research is associated with the biological characteristics of the studied grain crops in specific natural and climatic conditions. The purpose of this work was to identify the potential capabilities of various grain crops in terms of yield and quality indicators of grain in the central zone of the Orenburg region. Food security of the population in the overwhelming majority of countries is most often associated with the provision of grain. At present, despite the active introduction of modern agricultural equipment and innovative technologies into the world agricultural production, it is not possible to achieve a significant increase in gross grain harvests. The level of its production is still insufficient to fully meet the growing needs of the rapidly growing population. According to the expert assessment of domestic scientists, in the conditions of modern natural and anthropogenic changes in the environment, Russia can play an important role in stabilizing the world grain production, which has sufficiently high natural, intellectual and technical resources for this. Their effective and rational use on the basis of nature-like, ecologically-oriented agricultural technologies can make a significant contribution to increasing food stability. Meeting the needs of cultivated plants in the elements of mineral nutrition was reduced mainly to the mobilization of soil fertility, i.e. depletion of humus reserves. As a result, in most of the grain-sowing regions of Russia, and primarily in the regions of the steppe zone, its negative balance has developed. It is quite obvious that these circumstances are a serious obstacle to sustainable grain production and can lead to even greater degradation of disturbed soils, disruption of the biological balance in agroecosystems and a reduction in biological diversity.