The article presents the results of studies carried out in 2021-2023 in the arid climate of the southern agroecological zone of Afghanistan (Helmand province) on desert sandy-clay soil. Under the conditions of two-factor field experience, the reaction of medium-fiber cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) to various methods of sowing seeds and doses of nitrogen fertilizer was studied. The influence of scattered, wide-row ("flat") methods of sowing and sowing on ridges, as well as doses of nitrogen fertilizer N0, N120, N150 and N180 on cotton yield, the number of open boxes on plants, the mass of raw cotton and cotton fiber in the box, the payback of nitrogen fertilizer by crop increase and fiber yield has been established. The conducted studies have shown the advantage of sowing cotton on ridges (in two rows with a feeding area of one plant of 0.75 m x 0.45 m) over scattered and wide-row sowing methods with row spacing of 0.75 m, as well as the significant effect of nitrogen fertilizer on cotton yield. The highest yield of cotton is provided by sowing on ridges and the use of nitrogen fertilizer at a dose of N180 in two terms (according to N90 before sowing and at the beginning of the flowering phase of cotton) – an average of 5.0 t/ha of raw cotton with a fiber yield of 36.2% was obtained over three years of research, an average of 24.5 was formed on each cotton plant pcs. open boxes with a mass of raw cotton of 6.9 g. The yield of cotton increases with the use of nitrogen fertilizer. The highest nitrogen payback of fertilizer – 11.9-12.2 kg of raw cotton/kg of nitrogen is also achieved when sowing cotton on ridges and applying N150 and N180.