The issues of increasing the validity of the conceptual provisions of strategic planning for the development of the agri-food sector, aimed at creating the physical and economic accessibility of products, are raised. It has been determined that the current legal framework creates difficulties in implementing such a strategy concept, which ensures mutual coherence and unity of provisions on the sustainable development of the agricultural sector and ensuring food security as a complex problem solved at the sectoral and regional level. It is shown that the basis of the conceptual provisions of strategizing is the task of self-sufficiency of rational consumption standards and balancing of domestic demand and supply of domestic products at a fundamentally new level. To effectively integrate conceptual provisions into the strategic planning system, it has been established that it is methodologically correct to study the categories “physical accessibility” and “economic accessibility” in inextricable connection. It is proposed to supplement the content of strategic planning for the development of the agri-food sector with scientific provisions based on the convergence of the physical and economic accessibility of products. This will strengthen the conceptual line of the new Food Security Doctrine by setting a multi-purpose task to interlink production and consumption with rational standards and developing methods for its comprehensive solution. The effects of specifying conceptual provisions will extend to the methodological and practical foundations of strategizing. It is expected that the strategic planning system will be harmonized at the federal and regional levels, focused on the effective use of the competitive advantages of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in achieving new milestones in food security. Options for the legal promulgation and practical implementation of the proposed conceptual provisions for strategizing the agri-food sector are proposed.
The article considers the social and legal aspects of regulating seasonal employment in agriculture in the context of the implementation of social agrarian policy aimed at reducing unemployment in the rural area and increasing the social protection of seasonal agricultural workers. Attention is focused on the fact that a large mass of seasonal workers in agriculture, working under an employment contract, turned out to be outside the state-regulated issue of calculating the insurance length of service that has existed in industries since 2002 for similar employees. In this regard, a hypothesis is put forward about the gaps in the legislative support of such a form of activity as seasonal employment in agriculture, the principles of fixing the working conditions of seasonal workers in agriculture at the regulatory level are proposed. The author's concept of the category "Seasonal agricultural worker" is also formulated and the legal support of its status is proposed.
The paper delves into pertinent issues related to the integration and application of digital intelligent solutions in the operational aspects of agricultural production, with a particular focus on their utilization in diagnosing diseases within grain crop plantings. The article's core objective centers on the analysis of challenges associated with orchestrating intelligent diagnostics within the grain complex's activities. To uncover these intricacies, a project management system has been introduced to outline the progressive sequence from preparing IT solutions to their effective implementation in the production cycle. This systematic approach facilitates the identification of primary barriers within the business process of agricultural crop diagnostics, grouping them into functional blocks: data management, infrastructure development, framework and platform utilization, human resources, and regulatory requisites. Given the predominance of conventional diagnostic practices, the article presents a conceptual operational foundation for neural network-based diagnosis of grain crop plantings. This foundation is structured across three hierarchical tiers: individual, regional, and federal. Each level tackles specific tasks within its purview, aimed at enriching databases, thereby adapting analytical systems and decision-making processes to ensure maximum relevance and precision. The proposed framework could serve as a foundational model for developing a comprehensive methodology for well-founded managerial decisions in grain production within the evolving context of digital agriculture. The conceptual strategies for forming an organizational strategy for intelligent diagnostics, as presented in the article, have been meticulously developed, taking into account established decisions driving the development of the digital economy within the agricultural sector.
Nowadays the development of agricultural innovations is due to digital technologies. At the initial digitalization stages, agricultural machinery and aggregates are equipped with various sensors that transmit the parameters of technological processes directly to the machine operator. At the next stage, personal computers, tablets and smartphones are equipped with special applications that allow remote control of production processes. And at the latest stages, it combines the main technological processes of the crop industry into a single chain, which allows you to move from drawing up technological maps for each crop to each field, take into account and plan agricultural landscapes, microclimatic parameters, seed consumption, etc. All subsequent stages of digitalization of crop farms and their transition to a new technological order require the involvement of new resources. This can be done only through the joint efforts of representatives of agribusiness, public authorities, scientific and academic organizations, as well as financial institutions. Consequently, agricultural enterprises have three stages of digital maturity: initial, intermediate and final. A number of measures were proposed for each stage of the development of digital technologies by grain producers. So at the initial stage, it is enough to build bilateral business relations between agricultural producers and IT firms. This allows us to solve particular production tasks. At the second and third stages, it is planned to complicate and consolidate economic ties between participants in the digital transformation process. At the final stage, it is necessary to create specialized venture funds. They will enable more developed agricultural areas to transfer the positive experience of using digital technologies to less developed ones. Taking this into account, the conditions for the formation of a digital ecosystem of agricultural enterprises of the Saratov region based on the concept of Agriculture 4.0 were presented. This ecosystem is designed to create favorable conditions for the external environment of agricultural enterprises for the transfer of innovations, as well as to accelerate the transition to a new (the sixth) technological order.
Intellectual capital as a complex system of components, along with physical and financial assets, makes it possible to achieve sustainable competitive advantages and ensure growth in business value. The study analyzes the influence of internal factors related to the activities of agricultural companies on their market value. The object of the study is Russian agricultural companies whose shares are traded on the Moscow Exchange. The subject of the study is financial and economic relations that arise in the process of formation and implementation of value-based management of companies. The purpose of the study is to identify internal factors that influence the value of agricultural companies. An analysis of the development trends of the Russian agro-industrial complex, including innovative activity, was carried out. A trend toward a reduction in innovation activity has been identified in a number of industries. It is shown that the renewal of fixed assets of agricultural companies does not allow them to level out the high level of their wear and tear, which impedes the transformation of intellectual resources into capital. It is substantiated that intensive modernization and sustainable growth of agricultural companies requires the harmonious development of material and intangible components, which will allow obtaining a synergistic effect. The influence of return on equity, as well as intellectual capital, assessed using Tobin's coefficient, on the value of agricultural companies is substantiated through the use of multifactor correlation and regression analysis. The resulting regression model allowed us to conclude that the growth of intellectual capital (Tobin's coefficient) will lead to a significantly greater increase in the value of the company than an increase in return on equity. Recommendations are provided for Russian agribusiness companies that will contribute to the implementation of value-based business management.
The results of the functioning of the grain-product subcomplex of the region for a long period of time set new goals and objectives that give the basis for the formation and development of an export-oriented cluster. The objects of the study were organizations of the transport and logistics infrastructure of the industry: elevators (including water), warehouses and their technical base, loading and unloading platforms of railway transport; flour mills. The paper characterizes changes in the scale, methods and geography of export activities from 2019 to 2022, as well as export-oriented investment projects implemented on the basis of public-private partnership to increase trade turnover with foreign buyers. It is noted that the mechanism of grain-product subcomplex export is developing in a "catch-up" type: the region does not have enough elevators and rolling stock to transport products, complex logistics leads to additional costs, problems of the commodity infrastructure are identified and characterized. The advantages of the functioning of an export-oriented cluster under the management of a specialized organization are substantiated, which will lead to an increase in the cost of international contracts due to an increase in prices, a reduction in transaction costs, and grain transportation along the Volga. The presented performance indicators of flour mills in the context of the urgent task of increasing the sale of products with high added value stimulate the search for new solutions in the field of improving management approaches to operation. The scientific novelty of the work is embodied in the proposed organizational and economic mechanism for the development of an export-oriented cluster of grain-product subcomplex of the region, which contains a system of subjects with scientifically-based development directions and management facilities with their potential. It includes elements of development in the form of processes and methods, as well as indicators of development results for assessing the state and dynamics.
The study examines the main directions for improving existing measures to support the social infrastructure of rural areas, the development of which is an essential component of ensuring the reproduction of human capital. The support measures taken are large-scale, implemented in specific projects of improvement and construction of infrastructure facilities by regional authorities. Noting the importance of the work being carried out, it has to be stated that the formation and implementation of state programs solves the tasks of improving the overall improvement of settlements and are not focused on solving the problems of ensuring the livelihoods of agricultural workers. Moreover, they are not focused on the task of attracting young specialists to the countryside, who are carriers of new sought-after competencies in modern high-tech agricultural production. The purpose of this study is to study the issues of infrastructural support for the reproduction of human capital, which require a study of the prevailing living conditions in rural areas, an assessment of the level of saturation with social services, and an analysis of the effectiveness of government regulation measures. To achieve this goal, the study uses statistical analysis of data on living conditions in rural areas, collection and study of financial indicators for the implementation of state rural support programs, surveys and expert assessments of the causes of the outflow of rural labor resources. To clarify the focus of measures to support the infrastructural development of the village, it is proposed to supplement the existing criteria for the selection of landscaping projects with indicators that take into account the improvement of the quality of life of agricultural workers and the participation of entrepreneurs in the implementation of these projects - the author proposes to change the scoring system of these project parameters. It is also necessary to supplement the personnel planning system of agricultural enterprises with an analytical block for assessing the need for infrastructural support for the life of the attracted workforce, which allows clarifying the composition and structure of measures to create conditions for the development of human capital.
Economic criteria, along with indicators of soil fertility, are a priority in the choice of technologies for cultivating crops. To a large extent, they depend on the volatility of prices for means of production and agricultural products and involve the prompt economic assessment of crop cultivation technologies based on scientific research data and up-to-date economic information. The efficiency of the economic assessment is provided by the corresponding web application and a database of enlarged standards of costs for technological operations. The economic assessment of technologies for growing permanent spring wheat and crops in crop rotations (steam–wheat – wheat – wheat; corn-wheat-peas-wheat; steam – wheat – soy – wheat) in various weather conditions in the period from 2012 to 2022 shows that with the prevailing prices for means of production and crop production, prices of 2023 in various weather conditions during plowing and surface tillage, with and without fertilizers, the most efficient production in the crop rotation is steam – wheat – soy – wheat. Of the two methods of tillage (plowing and surface) in arid conditions, the productivity of crop rotations and permanent wheat was 19-30% higher on plowing, the profitability was 11-36 percentage points higher. In average and favorable weather conditions, crop yield on plowing remains higher, but the difference between treatments decreases to 3-12 percentage points.. In this case, at lower costs, the profitability of the surface treatment technology is higher by 2 to 34 percentage points. The economic efficiency of using fertilizers at existing prices turned out to be low, especially in dry years. The cultivation of non-replaceable wheat in dry periods, both with fertilizers and without them, is unprofitable (profitability on plowing -25%, on surface treatment - 30%). The use of fertilizers leads to an increase in losses: at a dose of 20 kg – up to -31%, at a dose of 40 kg – up to -35 – -39%. In crop rotations, profitability is mostly positive, but with the use of fertilizers in unfavorable periods, it also decreases by 6–38 percentage points. The conducted economic assessment indicates the need to expand the area of crop rotations with soybeans and surface tillage, study and use more effective ways of applying fertilizers.
The article analyzes the trends in the development of dairy farming in the Russian Federation and the North-West Federal District from 2005 to 2022. The analysis of changes in the structure of milk production in the context of producer types is carried out. The increased differentiation of dairy farming development between milk producer types in the Russian Federation and the North-West Federal District has been revealed. Priority state support for large investment projects in dairy farming has accelerated the development of innovative technologies, growth of dairy productivity, and gross milk production. Milk producers in the regions of the North-West Federal District, the Non-black earth region of Russia as a whole, face the problem of meeting the requirements of an increased effective scale. The cessation of milk production by family farms, household plots small and medium-sized enterprises leads to milk production localization of, dairy farming fragmentation in the regions, strengthening of territorial differentiation of agriculture development as a whole. The complex development of digital technologies, the digital transformation of agriculture has an additional impact on increasing the effect of mass production, strengthens the process of concentration in dairy farming. At the same time, digital transformation creates potential opportunities for the development of farms with medium and small size of milk production based on the maximum adaptation of production scale to local agro-climatic and production-economic conditions. The implementation of local competitive and comparative advantages is able to ensure the competitiveness of milk production with a smaller scale of production in regions with limited rental potential, regions of "risky farming". The relevance for the formation of a targeted organizational mechanism for dairy farming digital transformation to overcome effect derived from path-dependence, the wide integrated development of digital technologies by small and medium-sized milk producers is increasing.
Issues of diversification of the rural economy due to the declining agricultural employment and the need to maintain a balanced spatial development of the country, remain of acute concern. Particular attention has recently been paid to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the basis of the rural local economy. However, until now the role of rural small and medium-sized businesses, including those employed outside the agricultural sector, in the economic development of municipal districts, as well as the differences in the level of development of these SMEs across the country, and not a separate region, remain almost unexplored. The article, based on SPARK-Interfax data, which accumulates information from Rosstat, Rosreestr, Federal Tax Service and other official sources, proposes a classification of municipal districts according to the contribution of non-agricultural small and medium-sized enterprises (NSMEs) to the revenue of district enterprises – 4 classes of districts are identified, characteristics of classes are given, including indicators of efficiency, productivity and remuneration of rural SMEs employed outside the agricultural sector. It was revealed that rural non-agricultural SMEs predominate in both the number and revenue of rural SMEs, although large enterprises still make the main contribution to revenue. In 26,2% of districts, the contribution of rural SMEs to the revenue of district enterprises exceeded 50%. With the increase in the contribution of rural SMEs to the revenue of enterprises in the region, a growth trend is observed in terms of revenue and profit from sales per employee, capital productivity, and a reduction in debts per ruble of revenue. The data allowed for classification only on the basis of legal entities registered in municipal districts. For more complete further research, it is necessary to improve the databases of the Federal Tax Service and Rosstat in the direction of providing data in the context of the actual location of economic entities by type of settlement, including financial and economic indicators for individual entrepreneurs.