Learn Russian: Мы начали сеять пшеницу, несмотря на то, что почва сухая. - We started to sow the wheat, despite the fact that the soil is dry.

It literally translates to "not looking at that, that." The word несмотря is formed from не (not) + смотря (looking, which comes from the verb смотреть). You use несмотря на (despite) plus то, что (the fact that) whenever you need to connect "despite" to a full clause containing a subject and a verb.

Why is there a comma right before что in the conjunction?

In Russian, compound conjunctions like несмотря на то что (despite the fact that) or до того как (before) can optionally be split by a comma. Placing the comma before что puts a little more emphasis on the fact that follows. It is also perfectly correct to just put a single comma before the entire phrase: ...пшеницу, несмотря на то что почва сухая.

Since this is a specific action they set out to do, why is сеять (to sow) in the imperfective aspect?

This is due to a strict Russian grammar rule: verbs that express the beginning, continuation, or end of an action (like начать, продолжать, or закончить) must always be followed by an imperfective infinitive. Because the sentence uses начали (started), the following verb сеять has to be imperfective.

Could we use the short-form adjective суха instead of the long-form сухая for "dry"?