Prices are one of the parameters of economic availability of goods and services. Large interregional differences in the price of any product lead to inequality in its availability in some regions and pose a threat to socio-political stability. Therefore, the study of regional prices for basic socially significant goods is a relevant area of economic research. The subject of our study is the phenomenon of spatial heterogeneity in the availability of food products in the Russian Federation, due to price differences. The purpose of the paper is to find patterns in regional price differentiation for the most popular product of the fish group - frozen whole fish and its substitute - beef. Both products are included in the list of basic food products, for which the Doctrine of Food Security of the Russian Federation sets threshold values for food independence, economic and physical availability. The paper analyzes data on the spatial distribution of prices for these goods, determines the main static and dynamic characteristics of price heterogeneity, and identifies key factors that can potentially lead to the emergence of disparity in regional prices. The main results of the work were the identification of a hidden trend of growth of interregional differences in fish prices in the Russian Federation, structuring of regions by price level, and detection of a number of patterns and anomalies in spatial differentiation of fish prices. The methodological basis of the work is statistical analysis tools, which are selected and adapted in accordance with the purpose of the study. The information base is data from publicly available sources.
Sustainable development of domestic agricultural production involves the use of new approaches to ensuring the financial security of agricultural producers, which is due to modern geopolitical challenges and the dynamics of economic development in Russia. The article focuses on solving the problems of ensuring the financial security of regional agri-food market entities in the context of tightening sanctions, developing an import substitution strategy and scientific and technological development of the agro-industrial complex. The study identified a number of problems in ensuring the financial security of agricultural organizations in the region: economic consequences of climate change, instability of purchase prices for agricultural products, dependence of agricultural production on imports, poor development of the insurance system of the agro-industrial sector, insufficient government support, personnel crisis, and others. The purpose of the study is to identify existing problems and develop directions for ensuring the financial security of agricultural entities in the region in the context of a mobilization economy. The research methodology is based on the use of various methods and approaches that consider the process of ensuring the financial security of agricultural organizations as a result of solving interrelated problems. The results of the study can be used in the framework of measures to improve the system of financial support for agricultural producers at the federal and regional levels and to ensure their financial security.
The use of an integrated approach to studying the development of the sugar beet product subcomplex is based on the author's hypothesis, according to which scientifically based rational construction of a system of interaction between the main participants interested in improving the industry will improve the efficiency of production and economic activities of seed centers and factories for processing and storing sugar beet seeds, farmers and sugar factories. The identified development areas are based on the activities of the Federal Scientific and Technical Program for the Development of Agriculture for 2017–2030, promising innovative technologies in the field of selection, seed production, plant protection, mechanization (robotics), storage and processing of products, and include the development of interregional cooperation between key entities in the field of creation (promotion) of innovations and agricultural producers, as well as a system of goals for assessing the results of development. The methodology for assessing the development of sugar beet production involves finding the indicators of the period of the beginning of the introduction of innovative technologies from the best values in the region (from the average for 10 years, three years) or forecast valuesadjusted for changes in costs. The final forecast indicators take into account the expected impact of innovative technologies on the achieved results of stable sugar beet-growing organizations and the potential capabilities of farms with experience in cultivating the crop. The proposed methodology was tested on statistical materials characterizing the economy of sugar beet growing industries of Saratov Region organizations. The study was conducted on a group of indicators: sown area, average yield, quality of commercial products, average unit price, profitability level, output per tractor driver, share of earnings from sugar beet in the salary of tractor drivers. The practical significance of the work lies in the use of the obtained results for further improvement of the mechanism for development of domestic sugar beet growing.
The consumption of fruits and berries in the Russian Federation is inferior to economically developed countries. Their production is constrained by a lack of high-quality garden material. Planting material coming from abroad often contains phytopathogens new to our country, and in the varietal section it does not correspond much to the climatic conditions of our country. To fulfill the task of import substitution and meet the needs of the population with domestic fruits and berries, it is necessary to establish a system for the production of planting material of the highest quality categories. Therefore, the article substantiates the effectiveness of the innovation project for the production of garden strawberries, which allows obtaining planting material of the highest quality. The technology includes exploratory research, access to an applied result (laying basic mothers). The payback period of the project will be 4 years, the internal rate of return of the project is 23.6%. The project can be adapted to production requests both by assortment, hook and by the amount of material produced, which makes it possible to indicate its potential market demand.
The research is aimed at developing a comprehensive methodology for analyzing and evaluating the relationship between agricultural development and sustainable rural development of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic in the context of modern challenges and problems, which includes seven main stages: formulation of research goals, identification of factors of rural and agricultural development, information collection, analysis and assessment of the current state and indicators of agricultural and rural development the use of methods for analyzing variations in the values of indicators for the development of agriculture and rural areas, substantiation of the causality of agricultural development with sustainable rural development, development of forecast scenarios for the development of agriculture and rural areas and the development of interrelated agricultural development with sustainable rural development. The analysis of the relationship between agricultural development and sustainable rural development includes an assessment of agroecological, economic, institutional and social aspects. The article also discusses key factors influencing the relationship between agricultural development and rural sustainability, such as climate change, the level of technological development, socio-cultural characteristics, etc. This methodology is based on the analysis of productive (agricultural production, agricultural production index, gross emissions into the atmosphere, the amount of waste generated from production and consumption, coverage of children from 5 to 18 years of additional education, etc.) and factorial (accrued wages per agricultural worker, labor productivity in agriculture, the share of agricultural land in the total area of territories, the number of rural population, etc.) indicators of the development of agriculture and rural areas.
The vectors of modern civilizational development determine the paradigm shift in relation to rural areas from sectoral to territorial approach. In this regard, it is relevant to assess the relationship between the human capital of rural areas and rural economy. The research is based on statistical data of the traditional developed agrarian region, the main producer of agricultural products - the Rostov Oblast. The paper presents comparative empirical studies of the impact of human capital on the agrarian sphere and on the rural economy as a whole at the level of the region and rural municipal districts. A significant difficulty was caused by insufficient availability of municipal statistics data, which limited the set of analyzed factors. According to the results of econometric modeling, significant functional dependencies of human capital influence on agricultural production and rural economy of the region were determined. At the same time, the differences in the strength of manifestation of the studied factors at the regional and municipal levels were revealed. The conducted research is of great importance due to the high differentiation not only of regional development of rural territories, but also intra-regional: the coefficients of variation in the key indicators of human capital and rural economy development in the municipal districts of the region under study ranged from 25 to 139%. It is concluded that the aggregated regional indicators level the problems of human capital development of rural areas at the municipal level, which makes it necessary to monitor and take measures of rural development at the subregional level.
The paper examines the digital economy penetration degree into the sector of crop farming and support agriculture activities in the period 2019 to 2023, searches the reasons for the discovered feature: a 70% boost of software tools used by crop farming organizations in 2023, compared to 2019, against the backdrop of a decline in ICT costs. A dataset from the tables of the federal statistical observation made by Rosstat in the form 3-inform was used. To assess the cost of software tools a regression analysis with machine learning methodology was applied; to calculate other measurements a standard set of statistical analysis tools was used. The article provides estimates of dependence on foreign-origin information systems, calculates the digital product market capacity together with fulfilled potential of digital economy in the crop farming sector over last years, calculates the maintaining information systems cost for key business processes: management, production, finance and accounting, marketing and human resources. The study reveals that software cost is not the main constraint to digital transformation in the field: we found no boost in the number of companies using software since 2019, and the number of software tools in crop farming in recent 2022 and 2023 was driven by companies that launched digital transformation in previous years, and mainly using low-cost general-purpose information systems that did not have a highly specialized industry application, therefore, there was no value increase of the digital economy in crop farming.
Currently, in the conditions of imbalance of the global food market and significant sanctions pressure for the agricultural sector of Russia, along with other sectors of the economy, the economic conditions are changing significantly. In these circumstances, it will be necessary to develop a new model of economic growth that takes into account the strengthening of the role of internal factors and resources in the formation of a balanced domestic agro-food market while diversifying external areas. The presented article is devoted to the priority areas of development of the agro-industrial complex at the present stage. The authors analyze the main trends in the development of the agricultural sector. The main areas of agricultural policy that require special attention are identified. It is emphasized that at present, issues of ensuring technical and technological sovereignty in the agro-industrial complex, achieving food security, overcoming the gap between the standard of living of the urban and rural population are of particular relevance, which requires the formation of a stimulating economic mechanism, improvement and organization of scientific research, formation and effective use of labor potential, improvement of the agro-industrial complex management system and digitalization development. The authors note that the implemented state agricultural policy is not holistic, which is due to a significant number of programs, concepts, strategies and other documents regulating the development of the agro-industrial complex and not having a single methodological basis and structure. In this regard, it is proposed to improve the regulatory legal field, in particular: the adoption of a new law regulating the development of the entire agro-industrial complex, updating the Doctrine of Food Security and the Strategy for the Development of the Agro-Industrial and Fisheries Complexes.
The article analyzes the main aspects of scientific provision of food security of the country as an essential component of national security. Much attention is paid to the disclosure of modern challenges. This is the technological lag of agriculture, global climatic changes, the state and use of land potential, the integrated development of rural areas. Taking them into account, priority areas of scientific research related to the development of breeding and seed production, pedigree animal husbandry, etc. were considered. To solve these problems, systemic measures are proposed to further develop the potential of agricultural science, including institutional and resource (personnel and financial) components, as well as measures for the most complete and effective use of it. To this end, approaches to the formation of a single scientific space in the field of agro-industrial complex, an integral system of scientific research aimed at ensuring the technological sovereignty of the industry in accordance with modern requirements are presented. Much attention is paid to the coordination of actions of state authorities at all levels, scientific and educational institutions, the business community, the formation of a single innovation cycle from planning and conducting scientific research, creating developments to their commercialization based on requests from producers and subsequent replication.
Objective limitations of scale effect realization at introduction of automated technologies of conveyor type Industry 3.0 are especially acute in dairy cattle breeding of the Non-Chernozem Zone of Russia. Increasing requirements to agro-climatic and other conditions of fodder and milk production increasingly limits the number of municipal districts and farms where it is economically feasible to implement large investment projects, which makes it difficult to realize the potential for the development of dairy farming. Features of agricultural land distribution in the territory have a significant impact on the possibility of implementing large projects in dairy cattle breeding, which largely determines the intensity of arable land use in the regions of the Non-Chernozem Zone. The share of sown area and the share of fodder crops in the sown area, cow load per 100 ha of sown fodder crops in the Non-Black Earth region are closely related to the density of arable land distribution on the territory in the regions and municipal districts (districts). Cow load per 100 ha of agricultural land and 100 ha of arable land are weakly related to this indicator, which is due to the intensive development of crop production in the southern regions of the Non-Chernozem Zone of Russia, while in the central and northern regions arable land is occupied mainly by fodder crops. Realization of local competitive advantages of milk production in the majority of the Non-Black Earth region is possible with the transition to a new level of technological development - Industry 4.0. The synergy of digital transformation and biologization forms the possibility of transition to industrial, simultaneously adaptive agricultural production, organization of milk production with competitive costs on dairy farms from 300-1000 cows, which is confirmed by the analysis of industry and statistical data. Expanding the range of cow population in the implementation of high-tech investment projects will provide a more complete realization of the agrarian potential in the regions of the Non-Chernozem Zone of Russia