The analysis of agricultural sector functioning in the Vologda Oblast over the past 10 years has shown that, despite current economic and political conditions of management, reduction of the resource base, a sufficiently high level of deterioration of the material and technical base, a lack of qualified personnel, an insufficient level of budgetary support for agriculture and difficult economic conditions in the Northern latitudes in general, production has been recently intensified. However, we should note a number of acute unresolved problems, such as a lack of budget support for agricultural producers (78% of the respondents), greater disparity of prices for agricultural products (76%), a current economic and political situation in Russia as a whole (62%), a critical state of the material and technical base (48%), etc. On the basis of official statistics it is possible to identify existing trends and problems in the industry development, but it is impossible to make an objective and rapid assessment of qualitative changes and certain processes in the current dynamic environment with the help of statistical accounting. In this regard, the Federal State Budgetary Institution of Science “Vologda Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences” in 2018 conducted a questionnaire survey of agricultural organizations heads in the Vologda Oblast in order to study changes in the assessment of a state of production and labor potential, investment and innovation activities, interaction with various institutions of the market, functioning in current political conditions (food embargo, counter-sanctions, WTO conditions, etc.). The article is aimed at covering trends and problems in the functioning of the Vologda Oblast agricultural sector on the basis of results of the survey of agricultural organizations heads and state statistics data. To carry out the work we used general scientific research methods (abstract-logical, systematic approaches, generalization, economic-statistical, monographic, and sociological methods, etc.), statistical (grouping, sampling, comparison and generalization), as well as graphical and tabular methods of data visualization. The practical significance of results is determined by the possibility of their use by regional and local authorities to make rapid and qualitative assessment of changes and certain processes and work out measures and directions for sustainable development of agriculture in the region and improvement of regional agricultural policy in general
Keywords
agriculture, investments, innovations, labor potential, vologda oblast, agricultural production, agricultural policy, modern economic conditions