This article addresses the institutional gap between static land law norms and the dynamics of demographic processes in rural areas. Using the Far Eastern Federal District as an example, it is shown that the existing legal model, while «demographically neutral», is unable to effectively address the challenges of depopulation, leading to irrational use of land resources and increased spatial inequality. The empirical basis of the study is the results of a survey of specialists in land management, property matters, territorial administration, cadastral work, and other fields, conducted by the author, as well as data from Rosreestr on the implementation of the «Far Eastern and Arctic Mortgage» program. This paper proposes a set of specific institutional public policy instruments adapted to the conditions of peripheral agricultural regions: the introduction of differentiated interbudgetary transfers based on the Territorial Sustainability Index (TSI), the creation of a «rural residency» institution with package solutions for new settlers, the legalization of flexible forms of employment through «smart» migration and labor contracts, and the development of mechanisms for the «institutional assembly» of disparate support programs. The proposed model creates a new legal agenda for the sustainable development of rural areas. The proposed model formulates a new approach to legal regulation of sustainable rural development. The study's results confirm that overcoming depopulation requires a transition from formal land management to adaptive management that integrates demographic factors into legal mechanisms for land use. The presented findings can be used to adjust state programs (such as «Far Eastern Hectare» and «Comprehensive Development of Rural Areas»), as well as in legislative efforts to improve urban planning and land legislation.
The study proposes models for forecasting wheat prices in the Russian domestic market using futures contract prices and lagged spot prices over time horizons from one to six months. It is established that two-month futures contracts possess the greatest predictive power. The results demonstrate that incorporating futures prices improves the accuracy of forecasting domestic prices compared to a traditional inertial model based solely on past-period data. On this basis, a two-factor model for forecasting domestic wheat prices is proposed, and the necessary statistical characteristics confirming the significance of the model coefficients and its overall efficiency are presented. At the next stage, a probabilistic model is developed to forecast changes in future prices relative to threshold levels established for the intervention fund. This approach enables the timely identification of signals indicating a potential need for procurement or commodity interventions within the framework of price monitoring. A mechanism for integrating the probabilistic model into the implementation of state grain interventions (both procurement and commodity) is proposed. This makes it possible to shift from reactive to proactive price monitoring, thereby reducing the risks of price volatility in the domestic market, which in turn contributes to strengthening national food security.
The article presents a comparative analysis of rural poverty in the United States, the European Union and developing countries, focusing on the role of agricultural cooperatives as an instrument for poverty alleviation. The empirical base draws on data from USDA (2024), Eurostat (2024), FAO (2024) and the World Bank. The findings show that in 2023 the rural poverty rate in the United States stood at 13.6% versus 10.7% in urban areas; in the EU 93.3 million people (21.0 % of the population) were at risk of poverty or social exclusion; globally, around 700 million people live below the extreme poverty line, the majority of them rural residents of developing countries. The urban–rural poverty gap is a persistent structural phenomenon, reproduced through the interaction of demographic decline, educational and infrastructural deficits, financial exclusion and price volatility in agricultural markets. Agricultural cooperatives reduce poverty through several complementary channels: employment creation and income redistribution, expanded access to credit, rural infrastructure development (including energy), improved access to healthcare and education. The anti-poverty effect of cooperatives materialises under conditions of adequate legal frameworks, systematic state support and a sufficient level of social trust within rural communities. The Chinese experience – reducing the number of rural poor from 99 to 16.6 million over six years (2012–2018) – is examined as an example of embedding the cooperative model into a comprehensive anti-poverty strategy that simultaneously develops infrastructure, digital platforms and social protection.
The article examines systemic problems of strategic management in the agro-industrial complex (AIC) of Tajikistan under conditions of fragmented production, cluster, and institutional mechanisms. It is demonstrated that the isolated implementation of digital, cooperative, or financial instruments fails to ensure sustainable development without aligning the key governance contours of the sector. The methodological framework of the study is based on systems analysis. Drawing on a comprehensive diagnosis of structural gaps in the agrarian sector and international practices, the author proposes a three-axis model of the strategic position of dehkan farms. This model comprises production-management, cluster-digital, and institutional-financial coordinates. For practical application, a 3×3 matrix is developed to diagnose farm maturity levels and determine targeted developmental trajectories. Farm profitability is substantiated as the integral performance criterion of the model, reflecting the coherence between internal and external management mechanisms. The concept of contour consolidation is introduced as an alternative to both collectivization and classical cooperation by scaling up natural-technological boundaries while preserving individual land ownership. Practical recommendations are formulated by the Ministry of Agriculture of the RT and regional authorities to enhance the economic sustainability of the AIC core production.
This article examines the current state of potato farming in the United Kingdom. Based on an analysis of data from the Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the Scottish Agricultural Science Agency (SASA), the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the British Potato Trade Association (BPTA), the article examines trends in potato cultivated areas, its distribution across regions of the United Kingdom, data on the harvest of seed and ware potatoes, yield figures and storage methods. The study examined trends in potato imports and exports, unit production costs, and wholesale prices for seed and ware potatoes. Based on the analysis carried out, current challenges facing the development of modern potato farming have been identified. These are attributed to climate warming in the country, weather instability at various times of the year, a shift in British consumers’ preferences towards fast-moving consumer goods, a reduction in potato cultivated areas, rising costs of energy, as well as low wholesale prices for potatoes in 2025 and a labour shortage during the harvest period. Recommendations have been put forward to address the above issues and ensure the sustainable development of potato farming in the United Kingdom in the near future.
Based on the analysis, institutional theory, and economic statistics, the article identifies a persistent structural discrepancy between the narratives of self-sufficiency and the actual outcomes of Russia's agricultural development. It is concluded that import substitution in critical segments (plant protection products and seed production) is often replaced by a reorientation of import flows from Western to Eastern suppliers, which occurs while maintaining a high degree of technological dependence and does not solve the problem of ensuring sovereignty in the agro-industrial complex. An analysis of the institutional mechanisms of state support revealed their instability, manifested in uneven financing, persistent departmental fragmentation, and increased regional disparities, especially in terms of access to credit resources and investments. Based on a comparative analysis of the adaptation strategies of foreign countries facing long-term sanctions regimes, systemic limitations and universal elements of successful adaptation were identified, including the diversification of external relations and targeted support. Using the authors' method of integral assessment of food security, the corresponding index was calculated, demonstrating a high level of production sufficiency while simultaneously reducing the economic availability of food for the population. It is substantiated that the continuation of current trends may lead to the system's transition into a risk zone, which is reflected in the proposed dynamic model of the «point of no return». In conclusion, the paper proposes directions for adjusting public policy, including concentrating resources on the development of critical technologies, strengthening social protection mechanisms, and deepening Eurasian cooperation as an alternative to dependence on a single supplier.
This article examines Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology as a tool for the economic assessment of environmental effects in Russian agriculture. The author proposes an original six-stage sectoral approach that allows for the identification, quantification, and internalization of environmental externalities at all stages of the life cycle – from resource procurement to production and sale of products and services. The first three stages involve the identification of types and sources of environmental effects within the sector under consideration. Three universal groups of impacts have been identified: natural resource use, environmental pollution, and landscape changes. At the fourth stage, adapted approaches and methods used in the IPCC and GHG Protocol standards are employed to assess these impacts in physical terms, ensuring flexibility depending on the level of detail and data availability. The fifth stage is aimed at identifying the sources of environmental externalities. Within the sixth stage, environmental externalities are valued in monetary units. For economic valuation, generally accepted methods are applied, as well as methods specific to the economics of sustainable development and natural resource management: market analysis, the replacement cost method, willingness-to-pay approaches, and discounted cash flow methods. The application of the methodology is demonstrated through a case study on crop farming, including the assessment of direct and indirect environmental effects, as well as the identification of the recipients of both negative and positive externalities.
This article examines current issues in the economic development of the agri-food sector. The authors examine the development of agriculture and food production. They note that significant limitations currently exist for nearly all factors in production growth. These include imbalances between supply and demand in the machinery, equipment, and technology markets; financial resources, including both borrowed capital and government support; and labor resources. This has resulted in a decline in financial performance and, consequently, a decrease in producer profitability. The authors analyze the volume and structural transformation of government support for agriculture, as well as pricing relations in the agro-industrial complex. They emphasize that, in addition to price regulation and government support, labor productivity significantly impacts the growth of profitability and competitiveness in the industry. In this regard, the article describes labor productivity in agriculture, as well as energy availability and energy supply in agricultural organizations. Increased labor productivity is based on the use of new equipment and technologies, and therefore investment. The authors note that over the past 10 years, the growth rate of fixed capital investment in agriculture has been almost three times lower than the overall economy. They analyze the indicators outlined in the Unified Plan for Achieving National Development Goals for the Agricultural Sector. They conclude that new policy documents, specifically an Agricultural Development Strategy, are needed.
Innovation is the main factor in increasing the efficiency of the agricultural economy in terms of ensuring technological leadership. The article emphasizes that, despite the importance of applying innovations in agriculture, the level of innovative activity of enterprises remains quite low. The factors that hinder the development of innovations in agriculture have been identified (high cost of innovations, lack of own funds, low innovative potential of organizations, lack of information, etc.). Among the innovations used in agriculture, technological innovations based on digitalization occupy a leading place. The article notes that large organizations are mainly engaged in the introduction of innovations in agriculture, but small and medium-sized enterprises maintain stable indicators of innovation activity and need additional incentive measures. The most important area for achieving technological leadership in agriculture and increasing the innovation activity of agricultural organizations is cooperation in the field of innovation. The article examines the indicators of cooperation between science, business and education, as well as the effects of such cooperation.
The article presents a comparative analysis of methodological approaches to assessing the artificial intelligence technology market in the agro-industrial complex as applied in Russian and international practice. The relevance of the study stems from the need to establish a unified system for evaluating the effectiveness of AI solutions in agriculture against the backdrop of rapid growth in the global agtech market. The analysis of foreign methodologies reveals their macroeconomic orientation, whereas Russian domestic developments focus primarily on the micro level. The comparative analysis yields a key insight for Russia: neither approach works in its pure form. Foreign methodologies ensure comparability and standardization but ignore Russian agricultural specificities – soil and climatic zones, farm structures, and skills shortages. Domestic methodologies are deeply adapted to local conditions but remain fragmented and non‑standardized. Harmonization, therefore, becomes not an academic wish but a prerequisite for building a national pre‑investment assessment system, which most agricultural enterprises currently lack. Drawing on current statistical data (Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, RANEPA, Ministry of Digital Development, NAURR), the paper provides a quantitative assessment of the potential for AI technology adoption in Russian agriculture and identifies the main barriers to its scaling. The study also outlines directions for further integration of domestic methodologies with international standards, thereby laying the groundwork for a national monitoring and performance evaluation system for AI projects in the agro-industrial complex.