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Journal section "Socio-economic research"

Development of Agriculture in the Vologda Oblast in the Assessments of Heads of Agricultural Organizations

Anishchenko A.N.

5 (12), 2017

Anishchenko A.N. Development of Agriculture in the Vologda Oblast in the Assessments of Heads of Agricultural Organizations. Social area, 2017, no. 5 (12). URL: http://socialarea-journal.ru/article/2440?_lang=en

Abstract   |   Authors   |   References
Agriculture is one of the leading core sectors of the economy; it contributes to food and economic security, demographic, labor, and settlement potential of the country. The fact that less attention was paid to the development of agriculture in the first decade of market transformation in Russia has led to significant public losses, and only in recent years, the authorities at all levels started treating the development of the agrarian sector of the economy as a priority issue. However, agricultural development remains constrained by a number of system problems, solutions to which must be based on objective information and analytical database. It should be noted that on the basis of official statistical data it is possible to identify existing trends and problems in the development of the sector, but it is impossible to register quality changes and separate processes in the modern dynamically changing conditions by means of statistical accounting. In this regard, a questionnaire survey of managers of agricultural enterprises of the Vologda Oblast was conducted in order to study changes in the estimates of production and labor potential, investment and innovation, interaction with various market institutions, functioning in the current political environment (food embargoes, retaliatory sanctions, WTO conditions, etc.). It is necessary to note that in a number of scientific institutions (All-Russia Research Institute for Agricultural Economics. A.A. Nikonov All-Russia Institute for Agriculture), some experience has been accumulated in conducting monitoring studies; however, the distinguishing feature of the monitoring studies conducted at Vologda Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences is their complex nature. The analysis of the functioning of agriculture in the Vologda Oblast in 2000–2016 shows that, despite the current economic and political conditions, reduction of the resource base, high level of deterioration of the material and technical base, shortage of qualified personnel and inadequate budgetary support to agriculture, in recent years there has been an intensification of production. The results of the 2017 poll have revealed that under modern management conditions, the development strategy of agricultural enterprises should be aimed to optimize the costs of organizations without reducing the volume of agricultural production (61%) or to increase the output without expanding production, i.e. to provide intensification (51%). None of the surveyed heads is planning a temporary halt to their agricultural companies. In addition, for several years there have been positive trends in the functioning of the industry (increase in the production and sale of agricultural products, stable level of profitability and labor productivity; the number of employees has not reduced, and their average monthly wages have been growing; there has been a growth of innovation activity of agricultural enterprises, an increase in the supply of products to other regions of Russia, etc.). However, there still remain unsolved problems such as insufficient budget support for agricultural producers (82% of respondents), current economic and political situation in Russia as a whole (59%), exacerbation of the disparity of the prices of agricultural products (59%), the critical state of the material-technical base, etc. The study used general scientific (abstract-logical, system approaches, generalization, economic-statistical, monographic, sociological methods, etc.), statistical methods (grouping, selection, comparison, and synthesis), as well as graphical and tabular methods of data visualization. Practical significance of the obtained results is determined by the possibility of their use by regional authorities and local self-government for the rapid and qualitative assessment of change and the individual processes that are impossible to observe with the help of statistical accounting, as well as for the development of measures and trends on sustainable development of agriculture in the region and improvement of regional agricultural policy as a whole

Keywords

agriculture, agricultural production, contemporary economic conditions