In Russia's Penza Oblast', cereal grain crops account for 58.1% of receipts from crop sales, sugarbeets account for 26.9%, and oil bearing crops 5.8%. Penza Oblast' can be divided into four different zones, each of which is characterized by different patterns of crop production. These zones are: (1) Vadinskii-Mokshanskii, comprising 12 raiony (administrative districts) in the Central and North Western parts of the oblast'; (2) Belinskii-Serdobskii, comprising seven raiony in the South and South West of the oblast'; (3) Nikol'skii-Gorodishchenskii, comprising three raiony in the North East of the oblast'; and (4) Kuznetskii-Lopatinskii, comprising five raiony in the South East and East of the oblast'. Zone (1) is characterized by average productivity soils, and includes 48.8% of the total land area used for cereal grain production in the oblast', 50.6% of land used for sugarbeet production, and 23.6% of land used for sunflower cultivation. Zone (2) has the highest productivity soils in the oblast', and accounts for 35.0% of the total land area used for cereal grain production in the oblast' and 49.4% of land used for sugarbeet cultivation in the oblast'. The fertility of most soils in zone (3) is poor, resulting in low productivity. Zone (3) accounts for just 4.0% of the total land area used for cereal grain production in the oblast', and technical crop production in this zone is almost nonexistent. Zone (4) accounts for 12.1% of the total land area used for cereal grain production in the oblast' and 31.5% of land used for sunflower cultivation. Sugarbeets are not grown in zone (4) because of the distance from sugar refineries. The zones in which crop production is most profitable are zones (1) and (2), which are also characterized by the highest degree of diversification. Overall, the most economically efficient crop types produced in the Oblast' are potatoes and sunflowers. Recommendations for the future development of different types of crop production in have been formulated on the basis of analysis of natural and economic factors existing in different parts of the oblast'. The recommendations relate to the cultivation of different cereal grain crops (including winter and summer wheat, barley, buckwheat, maize, rye and oats), legume crops (peas and lentils), sugarbeets, oil bearing crops (sunflowers, rape and camelina), potatoes, and other vegetables in the four different zones.
