The digitalization of the rural economy, the increasing role of digital technologies, the emergence of new non-agricultural economic activities in rural areas and new professions (digital agronomist, digital veterinarian, digital agroanalyst, agrokiberneticist, operator of unmanned aerial vehicles, etc.) leads not only to an increase in labor productivity, but also to an increase in risks and threats to rural society. The role of labor resources in the rural economy is fundamentally changing, its share in the national wealth is decreasing due to a decrease in the productivity of routine labor of workers with an increase in the productivity of machines and mechanisms in the agro-industrial complex, insufficient compliance of the existing professional qualification structure of personnel in rural areas with modern requirements of society, including global trends in mass mechanization, automation, informatization, etc. digitalization of agricultural work, gradual replacement of low-skilled labor with more skilled. Therefore, approaches to the integrated management of not only economic, but also social development of rural areas must now be radically revised. The purpose of this study is to actualize the need for a comprehensive analysis of the positive and negative impact of the digital transformation of the economy on the social development of rural areas in Russia. The materials of the Republic of Bashkortostan revealed the intensification and spread at the regional level of various social threats and risks, including due to the digitalization of the economy: increased unemployment and a decrease in the quality of life of the population, the outflow of young people from rural areas to cities, negative processes of socio-demographic development, deformation of human and social capital, reduction in the availability of high-quality medical care and education, an increase in protest moods in society. These problems lead to an aggravation of social contradictions, contribute to the strengthening of territorial imbalances and actualize the need to develop effective mechanisms for eliminating threats and risks to rural social development by improving socio-economic policy, including through balanced management of the digital transformation of the rural economy.
Agriculture is one of the main sectors of the economy on which the country's food and economic security is based. In this regard, the sustainable development of the agricultural sector requires the adoption of effective measures by the state. Agricultural development cannot be achieved without the involvement of the rural population in this process, for which quality of life is a fundamental characteristic. Strategies and main federal programs are considered, showing the interest of government authorities in addressing these issues in a comprehensive manner. The article analyzes the main problems of rural areas that have a negative impact on the quality of life of the rural population. A review of domestic and foreign models for assessing quality of life was conducted. Quality of life is a multifaceted category, therefore the work analyzed statistical indicators characterizing the quality of life of the rural population, grouped into blocks: demography, housing conditions, education, health care, services and income of the population. To carry out calculations and obtain initial data, it is necessary to rely on a timely updated database of statistical indicators of the Federal State Statistics Service. Data were collected for the regions of the Volga Federal District. A methodology for calculating the integral indicator of quality of life for the rural population is proposed. According to this methodology, the best result belongs to the Penza region, and the worst to the Perm region. A scale for ranking regions according to the maximum and minimum values of the integral indicator was compiled. The placement of intervals is based on the actual values obtained for the regions. The results of the study are of interest to regional authorities, allowing them to evaluate the development of rural areas and take effective government measures.
The article examines the causes, driving forces and the first results of the farmer protests, unprecedented in scale, severity and socio-political significance, in the EU countries in late 2023-early 2024. Their interrelation with the implementation of the new agrarian strategy and the resulting reform of the EU Common Agricultural Policy is analyzed. It shows that the European farmers are aware that the planned scale and dynamics of the "eco-climatic" transformations of the EU agricultural sector, combined with its progressive openness to external food suppliers, are fraught with an unacceptable decline in regional production and self-sufficiency in food, the ruin of a large number of farms (especially small and medium-sized family farms) and the destruction of their way of life, which is the basis for a normal functioning of many rural regions. Mass farmer protests have swept 70% of the Western EU countries. In the Central and Eastern European region, which is growing in importance for food security of the European Union, protests (and of a particularly acute nature) covered 90% of countries. Their farmers, in general, are worse than farmers in Western EU countries in terms of production, technology, organizational and economic readiness to fulfill the goals and measures of the new agricultural strategy. In addition, the markets of the countries of the region, especially those neighboring Ukraine, were sharply negatively affected by the almost uncontrolled import of cheap Ukrainian food. The authorities of a number of countries and EU institutions have made concessions (not yet strategic) to farmers. Taking into account the nature of the ongoing processes, the article examines some of their possible consequences for the development of the EU agri-food complex, including its relations with Russia.
The article deals with the problem of digital transformation of agriculture. The characteristic features of the "green revolution" and its significance for the world economy are substantiated. The author highlights the main stages of the digital transformation of agriculture, analyzes the theoretical prerequisites for changes and the introduction of digital technologies, and identifies promising areas for further development of digitalization of agriculture. The main problems of manufacturing companies in this industry have been identified. The main measures of state support for the industry have been identified: attracting investments, expanding access to monetary subsidies for modernization and increasing the number of farms throughout the country. Using the example of a dairy farm, the structural and contextual parameters of the organization in agriculture are considered. In conclusion, the main directions of the second "green revolution" and agricultural management in the Russian Federation are revealed, as well as the use of digitalization results in related fields, which will further contribute to the introduction of artificial intelligence and a variety of "smart sensors" in agricultural production.
The paper substantiates the need to improve methodological recommendations and provisions for the development and updating of the system of norms and standards for technical support of the agricultural sector in the context of the formation of a new technological order. Methodological approaches to the development of progressive standards of demand and the definition of technologically necessary machine and tractor park of the crop industry of the Rostov region are proposed. Methodological approaches include the calculation of corrective coefficients of the regulatory need for new-generation agricultural machinery, based on the study of the experience of technical re-equipment of the crop industry and the formation of optimal machine and tractor advanced (model) farms in the region using traditional, intensive and resource-saving technologies for the cultivation of cereals and legumes. In order to identify the regulatory need for a new generation of agricultural machinery, farms using intensive technologies and being advanced in logistics were grouped by the area of agricultural land, which made it possible to establish the regulatory level of technologically required machine and tractor fleet of the crop industry for small, medium-sized agribusiness and large agroholding structures. To determine the need for agricultural machinery when using resource-saving technologies, agricultural organizations and peasant (farmer) farms in the region using direct sowing (No-till) were selected as model farms, which reduces the need for the formation of an optimal fleet of agricultural machinery for tractors by more than two times. It is argued that the studied category of model farms has high efficiency results of production and economic activities in the cultivation of cereals and legumes. Therefore, calculated and scientifically based correction coefficients for determining the regulatory need for new generation agricultural machinery can be applied to the region and the agro-zone as a whole.
The article clarifies and structures the tasks of digital transformation in ensuring sustainable growth in agricultural production. The problems are analyzed and the necessary prerequisites for sustainable growth are formulated with increased price volatility in the product markets, increase in the cost of resources and global risks, and stabilization of the level of state support for agriculture. The relevance is substantiated and the basic conditions for the implementation of the scenario of increasing production volumes in industries and sub-sectors of agriculture with decreasing costs are formalized. The increased differentiation of the rates of development between the sub-sectors of agriculture in the Northwestern Federal District was revealed, depending on the phase of transition to industrial automated conveyor-type production. During the analysis of mastering digital technologies process in the agro-industrial complex, strengthening of applied artificial intelligence technologies role in solving a set of tasks to improve the efficiency of agricultural production management was determined. The tasks of digital transformation are structured in the implementation of a scenario of development with decreasing costs in industries and sub-sectors of agriculture, ensuring internal and external savings, reducing all types of unit costs: direct production, management, transaction (market), opportunity (lost profits) with an increase in production volumes. The relevance of the target organizational and economic mechanism of digital transformation ensuring sustainable agricultural production growth and competitiveness, including in the Non-Black Earth Region of Russia, in the "zone of risky agriculture" was substantiated.
The interconnection of theories for developing a method for changing the institutional environment in the process of state regulation of the system of land relations in agriculture and the agricultural land market is argued. The theories of property rights and institutional changes were chosen as the supporting ones. The platform for studying the land market is composed of scientific provisions of the theory of markets, the basis of state regulation of land relations – the theory of public choice. Certain areas of research were developed based on the postulates of the new institutional theory, the theory of institutional matrices, the theory of modernization and the general theory of coordination. Management solutions are proposed to improve the institutional mechanism for the implementation of ownership of agricultural land, the novelty of which is associated with establishing the priority of the right to dispose of land in the triad of powers and subsequent improvement of the quality of the mechanism for protecting the right of ownership of land, the process of concluding contracts between economic agents with minimal costs. The contract enforcement mechanism allows, by monitoring individual transactions and as a whole, to determine the expected utility. Methodological approaches to the formation, maintenance and change of the institutional environment in the process of state regulation of the system of land relations in agriculture and self-regulation of the agricultural land market based on the modernization of land legislation, existing institutions, and agriculture are substantiated. A connection has been identified between the institution of the state – the regulator of land relations and the institution of the agricultural land market, which is manifested in the interaction of special organizations that provide support functions for rule institutions and existing institutions (lease, mortgage, purchase and sale, taxation, etc.). The new structure for managing land relations under the Government of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation should have a positive impact on changes in the institutional environment.
Modern conditions of socio-economic development of rural areas are focused on the implementation of the concept of sustainable development. The service sector, which includes the consumer cooperative system, plays an important role in the transformation of the consumer market. Consumer cooperatives ensure the growth of income of producers and workers in the rural areas where they live through the creation of competitive wholesale food markets. The author identified the factors of economic sustainability formation in order to assess the competitive environment of consumer cooperation organization. The competitiveness of the consumer cooperative consists in the ability to be a participant of the rural market, to create and use competitive advantages in relation to competing retail entities. Based on the presented factors, the competitive advantages of consumer cooperative organizations in rural areas are formulated. Thus, the author's approach is to identify such components of cooperative organizations as social, resource, organizational, qualification, integration, market. The sources of competitive advantages are location, the role of shareholders in the organization of processes, being the owner of the organization. The main trends in the further development of the consumer market of the consumer cooperative system in rural areas are presented and identified. The methodological approach to the assessment of the competitive environment is defined, which consists in the substantiation of the theoretical basis and presentation of the model of sustainable development of organizations of Novosibirsk Regional Consumer Cooperative Union on the basis of regression analysis for 25 organizations located in rural areas. The model of increasing sustainable development on the real organization of consumer cooperation of the Novosibirsk region is developed and tested. Domestic and foreign studies confirm the competitive advantages of consumer cooperatives and predict their sustainable development in rural areas.
For the formation and development of agriculture, as well as any industry, the presence of basic factors is important. The deficit of some and the surplus of others do not contribute to the development of the industry, although it acts as the basis of industry specialization. But for the development of the industry – sustainable long–term growth and high efficiency - an optimal balance between factors is necessary. On the other hand, the presence of such properties of factors as interconnection and substitutability (substitution) allows you to manipulate the volumes of factors – to increase the volume of one (some) with a deficit of some (some), and thereby reduce the so-called "factor predestination". However, even in this case, there are certain proportions between factors formed by production, which not only reduce factorial and overall efficiency in violation of the so-called "natural proportions" between factors, but sometimes prohibit (do not allow) excessive manipulation (substitution) of factors. The formulated provisions are significant for the long-term development of national agriculture in the light of the growing consumption of food and demand for agricultural products and raw materials in the world, with simultaneous increased competition in global agri-food markets, as well as the growing importance of agriculture for the national economy, the state and society.Based on official statistics data for the period 2000-2022, the article analyzes the relationship between the factors "land", "labor" and "capital" in agriculture in Russia, identifies the main dynamic and structural trends in the use of various factors, their ratio, correlation with the dynamics of agricultural production.
The article provides a comprehensive study of the problem of sustainable development of agricultural production in Russia, taking into account the features of structural changes in its resource potential. To increase the validity of the conclusions, it is proposed, in addition to studying changes in the resource structure, to conduct a corresponding analysis of structural changes in the industrial and production spheres. In order to identify short-term and long-term trends in the dynamics of agricultural production and its sustainability, a set of indicators was calculated that characterize structural changes by industry sub complexes, categories of producers and resources used. The use of several indicators is due to the need to use the advantages and compensate for the limitations of each of them for methodological justification, depending on the theoretical and scientific-practical goals of the study. Factors influencing the sustainability of agricultural production in the context of changes in the external economic environment have been identified. The features of sustainable development of agricultural production in connection with structural changes in resource potential are determined. In particular, the most noticeable coincidence of structural dynamics is observed in the sectoral and resource spheres; the sustainable development of agricultural production is also influenced by the implemented measures of state agricultural policy and structural changes in the production sector. An assessment was made of the further dynamics of development of the country's agro-food sector and the resource potential of agricultural production. The greatest impact on the sustainability of agricultural production will be exerted by measures to form and use resource potential, expanding innovation activities and introducing resource-saving technologies, increasing export potential for agricultural products, expanding import substitution processes in the resource sector through the development of domestic production of agricultural resources.