The article analyzes the main problems of transport infrastructure in rural areas of the northern and eastern regions and its influence on the territory in 2020-2021. The national project «Comprehensive plan for the modernization and expansion of main infrastructure» was chosen as the object of analysis. The project is divided into two components: transport and energy. Within the framework of the transport part, two goals were set: creation and modernization of infrastructure for external transit routes through the territory of the Russian Federation, as well as the improvement of internal transport infrastructure. Most of our country, especially rural areas, are located in the Arctic, the Far North, Siberia, and the Far East, are devoid of railways, paved roads, and depend on a short period of summer-autumn sea and river navigation. The second goal, aimed at solving internal infrastructure problems, should become a priority within the framework of the implementation of the NP. It is worth noting the problem of reducing local small-aircraft airports, which are often non-alternative way of delivering goods and people. It leads to a significant decrease in the transport accessibility of rural areas. During the study, it was determined that the implementation of this project is complicated by a number of problems in administration (frequent changes in the structure of the project, the lack of publicly available passports of federal projects), in financing (annual changes in the amount of project financing), in related industries (construction and production of building materials). The paper offers solutions to the identified problems, directions for improving the project, enhancement related industries. Main results of NP in rural areas will be the improvement of transport infrastructure, an increase in freight traffic between urban and rural areas, creation and development of service infrastructure in rural areas and creation of new jobs.
The relevance of the topic of the study is confirmed by the significant impact of food prices on the social situation of the majority of the Russian population. According to RIA-Novosti, 71% of Russians spend more than 50% of their income on food and put it in a dependent position on food price conditions. According to FAO research, if in 2020 the increase in world food prices amounted to 3%, then in the Russian Federation 6.7%, including the price of dairy products increased by 7.3%, for meat products - by 3.7%, fruits - 34.4%, vegetables - 15.6%, potatoes - 38.9%. The outstripping increase in prices for sugar, sunflower oil and other products in 2021 caused concern of the Government and the President of the Russian Federation. The State Duma held parliamentary hearings on the topic: "Improving the legal mechanism of state regulation of pricing for essential food products" (10.03.2021). The Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation was forced to urgently develop and adopt a number of administrative measures restricting the export of individual food products. However, the measures taken may be temporary. In order for the food market to be stable and sustainable, an economic mechanism for its effective regulation must be developed and applied on the basis of a balance of interests between producers and consumers. As part of the study, distinctive approaches to the methodology formation of food market regulation were considered; proposals were made for its segmentation and the development of a set of regulatory measures for each segment and period of time. Data on the average monthly consumption of products for 2010-2018 per capita were obtained. An indicator of growth of retail prices in terms of products, caused by an increase in monetary incomes of the population, was calculated. It was noted that the increase in food prices at the level of growth in monetary incomes of the population meets the balance of interests of the producer and consumer of food products.
As a result of the research, the authors revealed that the conceptual idea of a significant part of the currently available approaches to assessing the innovative potential and innovative activity of social ecological and economic systems (SES) at the regional level is the study of the ability, capability and readiness of the territory to form an innovative economy. Social ecological and economic systems are characterized by cyclical development, which is determined by the nature and relations of the receipt and consumption of energy, substances and information. By its composition, the social ecological and economic system consists of internal and external elements and resulting indicators. Internal elements are resources, social and organizational-economic relations; external elements are the activities of the state to finance R&D, tax incentives for innovation, the existence of a state innovation policy. The resulting indicators reflect the specific weight (share), profitability of innovative products, the number of types of innovative activities, the economic effect of innovation, etc. To assess the internal components of the social ecological and economic system, including the innovative potential and innovative activity of agricultural organizations in the region, appropriate indicators can be allocated from the list of resources: financial, logistical, human, intellectual. The selected indicators can be used to assess the components of innovation activity. With innovative investment, the organization's income increases. Thus, potential investors will have the opportunity to increase profits, which in turn determines the investment attractiveness of innovatively active agricultural organizations. Applying an integrated approach at the regional level, it is possible to adjust the strategic directions of its innovative development, as well as predict the results of innovative activities.
In recent years, in the functioning of rural areas, there have been trends of increasing differentiation between rural settlements, as well as increasing, in dynamics, separation from urban agglomerations in terms of socio-economic indicators of development. This indicates the presence of significant flaws in the implemented organizational and economic mechanisms for the functioning and development of rural areas. In this regard, it is necessary to conduct research on the formation of effective organizational and economic mechanisms for rural development. It is necessary to identify the main problems and contradictions between the elements in the structure of the organizational and economic mechanism, to analyze the impact of rental factors, resource provision, institutional conditions on the OEM functioning and development of rural settlements. In the article, according to the Leningrad region, the population density, investment attractiveness of rural settlements, migration inflow and outflow depending on the distance from the center of the region are investigated. The basic industry of most rural areas is agriculture. The efficiency of resource use largely depends on the level of its development and integration of economic entities along the product creation chain. The types and main elements of organizational and economic mechanisms of economic entities in rural areas are identified.
In modern economic conditions, cluster structures are one of the most suitable options for the development strategy for agricultural sub complexes. The analysis of the current state of the agricultural sector of the Amur region has shown that a significant share of the gross agricultural output of the region belongs to crop production. In 2020, the volume of agricultural production at current prices amounted to 48.3 billion, the share of crop production – 71%. In this connection, in the conditions of agriculture in the Amur region, which is the breadbasket of the Far East, the development of a cluster strategy for the development of crop production on the basis of a comprehensive strategic analysis of the industry is of particular relevance. Based on the comprehensive strategic analysis of the current state of the crop production industry of the Amur region, the strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats of development are identified, as well as the existing prospects for the implementation of cluster policy in the region's industry are identified. The analysis of the cluster potential of crop production in the Amur region for the period from 2010 to 2020 determined that against the background of the unambiguous leadership of soybean production in the direction of strategic development, potential product clusters for the production of potatoes and cereals are distinguished on the basis of clustering. Based on the results of the strategic and cluster analysis, as well as taking into account the analytical review of documents regulating the strategic development of the agricultural sectors of Russia, the Far East and the Amur region, the mission, strategic goal, tasks and main priority directions of the cluster strategy for the development of the crop industry of the Amur region are determined. The next stage in the implementation of the designated priority directions of the development of the cluster strategy of the crop industry is the development of forecast development indicators and program measures that ensure the achievement of the strategic goal and the fulfilment of the designated tasks of the developed cluster strategy of the crop industry of the Amur region on the basis of scientifically based innovative approaches and technological solutions.
The article gives the author's definition of "main crops" and carries out a comparative analysis of their production in farms of all categories for 2016-2020. It is noted that when cultivating main crops in the country, a significant role is given to foreign technological resources and, above all, seeds. The dynamics of the import of crop seeds into the Russian Federation (according to the Federal Customs Service of Russia) was studied and appropriate conclusions were made on the degree of localization of their production in the country. The main problems in the current state of domestic breeding and seed production were revealed, which were taken into account when working out issues of legislative and regulatory support. The conceptual model of breeding, seed production and seed science of agricultural crops in the country is presented and the role of the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia for monitoring the production of reproductive seeds is shown. The directions of breeding and seed production development on the basis of improvement of regulatory and legal support and, above all, the draft law "On seed production" are considered. The need to legally ensure the protection of property rights of breeding and seed-growing centers and their experimental farms in terms of land use is justified, as well as to determine the powers of the executive authorities to develop a mechanism for the allocation of special seed-growing zones for the purpose of their spatial isolation. A set of organizational and economic measures for the development of breeding, seed production and seed science of crops in the country has been developed and proposed.
The article deals with the development of industrial horticulture in the North Caucasus, where, due to favourable natural and climatic conditions, the industry is of key importance for agriculture. The features of the current state of horticulture are noted: high dynamic rate of development, wide introduction of advanced technologies, and implementation of large innovation and investment projects. In 2015-2020, the total area of fruit and berry plantations increased by 12.3%, in the fruiting age – by 8.1%, and the volume of fruit and berry production increased by 74.3%. It is established that almost all the subjects included in the analyzed region are leaders in Russia in terms of gross collections and laying areas, and intensive gardening is highlighted here as a priority direction. It is established that in some regions, personal subsidiary farms still play an important role in production. The strategic directions determining the economic positions of horticulture are noted: state support, improvement of the qualifications of industry workers, introduction of advanced practices and cultivation technologies, development of breeding and nursery centers, development of market infrastructure. The obtained research results can be used to develop a program for the development of horticulture in the North Caucasus.
Rural areas play an important role in the socio-economic processes of the country. Their uneven development in Russia is one of the key problems in the state strategy. The remoteness and expansiveness of rural areas can and should be balanced by their integration into the digital economy, which provides for a single information and communication space. Digital rural areas are primarily covered by the entire territory by the Internet, which is already a powerful resource for obtaining state, educational, medical services, and the ability to conduct electronic commerce for villagers. This removes the main social problems of their accessibility. To this end, it is necessary to determine the essence of sustainable rural development in conditions of digitalization, the basic principles of sustainable development, to formulate the main necessary components of the content of the concept of "sustainable rural development" from the point of view of the development of the information and communication structure and their integration into the global digital landscape. This approach makes it possible to diversify economic activities in rural areas, an additional impetus to achieve economic prosperity and, at the same time, preserve the natural and climatic balance. Also, using digital technology residents get the opportunity to carry out activities that are not related to agriculture, thereby increasing the social significance and attractiveness of the territories.
The increase in the intensity of agricultural land use and the increase in the area of reclaimed land in the Leningrad Region in recent years may contribute to a potential increase in the removal of biogens with groundwater from drainage systems. In conditions of limited state support, it is possible to finance priority environmental investment projects on the basis of public-private partnership, which will help to strengthen the interest of investors to participate in regionally significant socio-environmental projects and increase attention to the problems of water resources management in rural areas. In order to reduce the eutrophication processes, we calculated the cost of applying environmental measures –the construction of a wetland, the creation of intelligent buffer zones, liming, using the example of an experimental field in the v. Menkovo, Gatchinsky district of the Leningrad region. The introduction of measures to reduce the concentration of nutrients in the drains entering the drainage increases the cost of reconstruction and construction of reclamation facilities by 4.0-15.0%, which will require an increase in the share of subsidies from the state. It is necessary to reorient the state land reclamation program to allocate support primarily for those farmers and agricultural organizations that will be ready to implement filtering and trapping systems. The development of a modified methodology for assessing the quality of agricultural producers 'activities, using a parameter that characterizes the level of environmental ethics and aggressiveness of functioning, consistent with individual indicators of regional statistics, will help identify the recipients of "green" subsidies. Also, the creation of public maps based on digital data in combination with other socio-economic indicators (the density of the rural population, the average size of the farm) will allow for the correct distribution of efforts to combat sources of water pollution in rural areas of the Leningrad region.
The rural territories of Russia have been the leading pillar of the agricultural sector for centuries. However, the situation has changed dramatically in recent years. The rural population decreases annually, villages disappear, and farms themselves lose their sources of profit. In order to localize the destructive process, a new approach to rural development is needed, involving the introduction of the concept of sustainable rural development, the promotion of entrepreneurial activity and the diversification of rural employment. The development of rural territories of the Russian Federation is characterized by simultaneous quantitative and qualitative imbalance in social, economic, administrative-legal, technical-industrial, environmental, cultural, and scientific and many other areas. The article examined a number of features characteristic of rural territories in Russia, revealed factors that negatively affect their development, as well as identified areas that can create competitive conditions and improve the quality of life of the rural population. The building block in the concept of rural development policy is the competitiveness of rural areas, the development of local initiatives, the use of resources that have not previously been used, and the main areas of socio-economic development of various sectors are the intensification of entrepreneurship. In order to ensure a high level of competitiveness of rural areas, the formation of their potential (economic, resource, personnel, marketing, production, innovation, entrepreneurial, etc.) is of particular importance.