The article presents the results of long-term research on the effectiveness of methodological approaches in the agro-ecological assessment of the alkaline group of lands and their meliorative use carried out on the pattern of natural and agricultural areas of the arid-steppe and steppe zones of Kazakhstan province. The Kazakhstan province of the dry steppe zone covers the southern and south-eastern part of the Orenburg region, including Adamovsky District. The soil cover in the FPC (farm production cooperative) “Komsomolsky”, Adamovsky district, Orenburg region, was the object of studies. The water and soil physical properties were studied by the method of S.I. Dolgov; the chemical analyzes were performed by the methods of V.A. Arinushkina. The mathematical processing of data on crop yields was carried out by the methods of B.A. Dospehov and the regression analysis by the linear method of PC «XML». The records on crop yields and other observations were performed by the methods of V.I. Kiryushin. The reclamation processing of solonetz and alkaline steppe soils being poor in sodium content and high in carbonate, as well as dark-chestnut alkaline soils were studied in the five-course crop rotation. Such techniques of ameliorative soil tillage as the three-tiered and deep plowing to the depth of 40 cm, moldboard plowing to the depth of 27-30 cm, as compared with plowing to 18-20 cm (without skimmers), have been studied. The experimental trials were started in the fourfold repetition. The area of one plot was 1000 m2 (10×100). 

The perennial grass layer tillage was made by the bastard fallow type, in June. In subsequent years, there was practiced annual graded tillage to the depth of 25-27 cm. The crop seeds were sown by the SGS-2.1 (stubble grain seeder) in the optimal timing for the zone. As result of studies it is ascertained that the productive “dead water” in soil for tillage variants on complex alkaline soils depends, except rainfalls, on the humidity of stable plants wilting, which is determined by the degree of salinity and depth of salt-bearing horizons. The meliorative soil treatment during all the research years had significant advantage on the water regime over moldboard plowing to the depth of 18-20 cm. The effectiveness of ameliorative treatment (three-tiered and deep plowing to 40 cm) is increased, as related to conventional plowing on dark chestnut soils, by 1.2 times, on deep solonetz soil by 1.5-1.7 times, on average solonetz by 2.3-2.4 times, on poor solonentz soils by 4.5-4.6 times. The deep and three-tiered soil tillage for all the components of the complex solonetz soils is rather effective. The deep moldboard plowing, as related to its effectiveness, occupies an intermediate position between the shallow plowing and meliorative treatments. It is concluded that in order to ensure safe production, the agro-ecological lands evaluation, the development and utilization of crop cultivation technologies in the adaptive-landscape systems of farming as related to certain groups of land are essentially needed.

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