The medal's statute was amended on July 18, 1980 by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR № 2523-X.

[2] The Medal "For Transforming the Non-Black Earth of the RSFSR" was awarded to workers, farmers and employees who made an impact on the work of implementation of the long-term program for the development for agriculture of the non-black earth zone of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and who worked as a rule, for not less than three years in this field and that were located on state or collective farms, or worked in businesses, organizations or institutions whose activities were directly related to the transformation of the non-black earth.

[1] Recommendations for award of the Medal "For Transforming the Non-Black Earth of the RSFSR" were made by the administrative heads of enterprises, institutions, organizations, boards of collective farms, party, trade union or Komsomol organizations labour groups, and sent to the executive committee of the District or City Council of People's Deputies for review.

[3] Each medal came with an attestation of award, this attestation came in the form of a small 8 cm by 11 cm cardboard booklet bearing the award's name, the recipient's particulars and an official stamp and signature on the inside.

On the obverse, in the right half, the relief image of a tractor pulling a plough through a field below a rising Sun over a distant tree line; at left the relief images of barns, grain elevators and power transmission towers; along the medal's lower circumference, the relief inscription "For transforming the Non-Black Earth of the RSFSR" (Russian: «За преобразование Нечерноземья РСФСР»), along the upper left circumference, a panicle of wheat; the obverse had a raised rim.