Abstract. The purpose of the experiment was to develop a technology for cultivating meadow clover under irrigation to obtain the planned seed yields in the conditions of the Lower Volga region. Research methods. Field experiments, records and observations were carried out in accordance with the generally accepted methods of experimental work. As a result of the research, it was found that the total water consumption of clover crops varied over the years of the herbage life and depended on the given pre-irrigation threshold of soil moisture. It was highest in the variants with the maintenance of the 70 % pre-flood threshold: 3.6–3.9, the lowest 2.7–3.1 thousand m3/ha in the variants with the 60 % humidity threshold. With the differentiation of humidity by the development phases, the total water consumption varied from 3.1 to 3.5 thousand m3/ha. The share of irrigation water in the structure of total water consumption was 60.6–72.7 % according to the experimental variants. The leaf area depended on the water and nutrient regimes of the soil: it reached the maximum values in the variants with a 70 % pre-irrigation threshold of humidity and fertilization. In comparison with the increase in biomass, the seed productivity of clover was less dependent on the photosynthetic potential and assimilation surface. The highest seed yields were formed in the variants with improved nutrition background and maintenance of a differentiated irrigation regime – 280–730 kg / ha. The accumulation of a significant amount of root mass by clover had a positive effect on improving the ecological state of the irrigated area: the water-physical properties of the soil improved, and nutrients accumulated in it. Scientific novelty. In the conditions of the Lower Volga region, the dependence of the seed productivity of clover on the availability of water and nutrients, on the age of the herbage, was revealed. Their optimal combination is determined for the production of seed yields at the level of 400–700 kg/ha.