About the current stage of digitalization of Russian agriculture

Issue № 7, 2024, article № 1, pages 3-14

Section: Digitalization in agrarian and industrial complex

Language: Russian

Original language title: О СОВРЕМЕННОМ ЭТАПЕ ЦИФРОВИЗАЦИИ РОССИЙСКОГО СЕЛЬСКОГО ХОЗЯЙСТВА

Keywords: COMPUTERIZATION, DIGITALIZATION, DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION, NETWORK COMMUNICATION, DIGITALIZATION STAGE, INFORMATION ASYMMETRY, INTER-LEVEL BARRIERS

Abstract: The modern stage of digitalization (computerization) of society and production is associated with the creation of the Internet and the mass distribution of various computer networks based on it. In our opinion, the most appropriate term to characterize the specifics of the modern stage of digitalization – computerization of processes is the term "networking of communications", since it accurately expresses the content of the modern stage - the unification of all people, as well as people and "things", "things" among themselves in a network of computers, that is, in a network electronic programmable devices. The networking of communications in the social sphere is a potential tool for the development of civil society and the institutional structure of the country, as well as production. The greatest opportunities for increasing production efficiency can be provided by networking of communications in the following processes: 1) in accelerating purchases and sales, including the movement of money, as well as goods and logistics, 2) in facilitating and accelerating market access for consumers and suppliers of goods and services, in accelerating the entire complex of market transactions. New opportunities are emerging in the automation of technological process control by saturating objects of labor processes (land, animals, machines, robots, premises, etc.) with sensors and connecting them to a network with control devices. The analysis of the information offered by the developers of digital solutions shows that in agriculture we are at the initial stage of digital transformation, which is characterized by the mass distribution of only the simplest and most supported (or required) systems by the state. In terms of the degree of implementation of network information technologies and their coverage of agricultural organizations we are also at the first stage (less than 15%), while a number of European countries are at the second stage (from 15 to 50% coverage, approaching the upper limit). The noted lag is associated not only with a significantly lower level of GDP per capita and lower density of population, but also with such phenomena as information asymmetry and high inter-level barriers and inter-level distortions of information and other interaction in the field of management, which leads to high transaction costs of innovation development. To overcome these negative phenomena, it is necessary to improve the organizational and economic mechanism of state support for innovation activities.

Authors: Epshtein David Berkovich