The knowledge and role of adaptive agriculture

Since its inception, agriculture has been adapting for soil and climatic conditions. Various farming systems and agricultural technologies are used in Russia. For a long time in areas of insufficient moisture, systematic work was carried out to develop and introduce adaptive methods of cultivation of agricultural crops. This study aims to argue the influence of the adaptation factor in the formation of agricultural technologies and farming systems on crop productivity and the ecological balance of the agro-landscape of the arid farming zone of the Lower Volga region. The studies were carried out from 2013 to 2021 on stationary sites of agricultural landscapes formed under the influence of agricultural technologies of varying degrees of adaptability (moldboard, combined and direct sowing). The research methodology was based on the works of scientists V. I. Kiryushin, A. L. Ivanov, N. P. Masyutenko, and A. V. Gostev, the methods of the GNU VNIIZiZPE, FGBNU “Rosinformagrotech” were used. Studies have shown that crop selection, methods of moisture accumulation, which provide additional moisture reserves up to 30–40 mm in a meter soil layer and growth productivity of crops up to 0.6 to 0.8 t/ha in grain units, the forest reclamation complex, which performs an ecological function of restoring degraded territories and soils, these are important links in adaptive agricultural technologies in the conditions of the Lower Volga region. It was found that farming systems and crop cultivation technologies should contain the main elements of adaptability, such as the arrangement of the territory, a balanced proportion of the main categories of agricultural land, typification of arable land by slopes and humus content in the soil, adaptive crop rotation, the recommended amount of total forest cover, taking into account the zonal aspect, justified type and design of field shelterbelts, which ultimately ensures the formation of an ecologically balanced agricultural landscape.