Occurrence of actinomycetes of the genus Actinomadura in the grey earth soils of Turkmenistan was studied. The Gause organic medium No. 2 with rubomycin proved to be most favourable for isolation of Actinomadura from the soil samples. The number of Actinomadura in 1 g of the soil varied from 3 to 686 000 depending on the sample which constituted 0.2-11 per cent of the total number of the actinomycetes. It was shown that Actinomadura are rather widely distributed in the grey earth soils of Turkmenistan. They were detected practically in all the soil samples tested. The number of Actinomadura significantly depended on the level of the soil cultivation. The number of Actinomadura in the samples of cultivated soils was higher than that in the virgin land samples. The isolates were classified as belonging to 16 species of actinomadura, 5 of which proved to be new Actinomadura species. It was shown with the streak plate method that Actinomadura had moderate antagonistic properties. The majority of the isolates were active against gram-positive organisms.