The agricultural sector of foreign countries, primarily developed ones, faced an acute shortage of labor and qualified personnel. This creates significant problems that hinder the sustainable development of agricultural production. The availability of skilled labour in agriculture is influenced by policies that cover many different areas, including education and training, labour markets, migration, regional and rural development policies. The shortage of labor and skilled personnel is of deep concern in countries with relatively extensive agricultural production, aging populations, rapid technical measurements and ongoing structural restructuring in the sector. Countries are taking different approaches to overcome these obstacles and improve the industry's image as a career destination for young people.
Over the past two decades, significant structural changes have occurred in the world trade in agricultural products and food. In the period from 2000 to 2022, the volume of world exports of agricultural products and food in value terms increased more than 4 times, the decisive factor in the increase in food exports is the growth of the world's population and, accordingly, the demand for food. It was found that over the period from 2000 to 2022, the consumption of agricultural products in the world for the main types of products increased by 1.5-2.5 times. The structure of consumption of agricultural products has also changed significantly, especially for such groups of goods as cereals, sugar and meat products, which affected the change in the commodity structure of food exports. Another important area of structural changes is the growth of exports of products with high added value. The article considers the structure of the market for food products with high added value and its changes over the past 20 years using the example of individual developed and developing countries. It has been established that the share of exports of these products in developed countries is currently approaching 50%. Russia is significantly behind developed countries in the export of food with high added value and in the last two years there has been a decrease in its share in the total export of food products for all types of products classified in this category. The article notes the role of transnational companies in the development of the market for products with high added value.
Russia and the Republic of Belarus are the largest economic partners. The mutual economic interests of both states are conditioned, first of all, by the high level of historically established industrial, cooperative and technological ties in almost all sectors of the economy and the objective need to preserve and further develop them on a mutually beneficial and equal basis. December 8, 1999 Russia and the Republic of Belarus have signed an agreement on the creation of a Union State, which declares the formation of a Union State as a new stage in the unity of the peoples of the two countries into a democratic state governed by the rule of law. Overcoming external challenges such as the pandemic and its consequences, increased sanctions pressure on Russia and the Republic of Belarus, geopolitical tensions in the world and others have proved the viability and sustainability of the unification of the two countries. Over the 25 years of the Union State's existence, significant work has been done to strengthen the traditional economic ties between Russia and the Republic of Belarus, but their current state still does not fully meet the needs of both states. Cooperation in the agro-industrial complex is currently aimed at ensuring food security, developing the agricultural sector of both countries and increasing mutual trade. Taking into account the generally recognized fact that the full realization of agricultural potential is impossible without expanding its presence in foreign markets, the processes of further international integration play an important role in terms of the prospects for the development of the agricultural sector of the Union State. The article considers the main directions of integration cooperation between Russia and Belarus in the context of ensuring food security in modern conditions.
The article is devoted to the study of measures of state support for agriculture in modern conditions. It is noted that systematic state support for the agricultural sector in Russia began with the implementation of the State Program for the development of agriculture. Currently, there is a whole range of mechanisms of support the agricultural sector, and the state is increasing the volume of financing for agriculture every year. Despite this, there is a tendency to decrease the level of profitability, which is associated with an increase in the costs of agricultural producers due to high import dependence. In this regard, one of the central issues in the near future is the need to ensure the technological sovereignty of the country. The analysis of the structure of the State Program showed that the main share of funding is directed to three federal projects: "Stimulation of investment activity in the agro-industrial complex", "Development of industries and technical modernization of the agro-industrial complex", "Export of agricultural products". At the same time, the significant share of financing is accounted for by the implementation of preferential lending and preferential leasing mechanisms (about 60%), and budget transfers to producers account for only about 30% of the financing volume of the State Program. The analysis of the dynamics of the volume of state support and the assessment of its effectiveness based on relative indicators (the ratio of the amount of subsidies received to the gross output produced, the number of people employed in the agricultural sector, and the balanced financial result) revealed the subjects of the country demonstrating the greatest effectiveness: Belgorod, Kursk, Lipetsk, Bryansk and Rostov regions, Krasnodar Territory. It is noted that, taking into account the changing conditions of the functioning of the agricultural sector of the economy due to external and internal factors, it is necessary to update key regulatory legal acts defining the main directions of agri-food policy in the country.
The effectiveness of investment policy of the state directly affects the quantity and quality of agricultural products produced, which should ensure the fulfillment of food security indicators of the country. The investment process in the agricultural sector is currently of great importance, as it will change the level of import dependence of the country. From the position of assessing the effectiveness of the state investment policy, the monitoring of individual indicators is carried out, which are still either generalized or scattered in nature and do not fully assess this direction. The investment process itself in agriculture is not developing as dynamically as it should from the position of ensuring the implementation of the main strategic directions of the industry development. At the same time, it is impossible to assign the issue of financing the investment process only to the state, which requires such a set of measures of financial regulation and stimulation that would allow to increase the investment attractiveness of the industry.
In this article, the authors of the study set a goal – to develop structural elements (services) of the concept of a digital ecosystem in the design of civilian buildings. The authors, relying on statistical data, found that the design field needs a comprehensive solution to systematize a large amount of data, automate design processes and is promising, from the point of view of the profitability of this area, to create a digital business ecosystem in it. Analysis of the largest Russian business ecosystems, observed trends in the development process and prospects for scaling. The authors determined the level of digitalization in this area, identified successful experience in operating the innovative BIM system in building digital models, using software developments to create calculation schemes and using platform solutions to manage the team. According to the results of a survey among the employees of ITEM – Project Workshop LLC, the concept of a digital business ecosystem for the design sector was proposed. The authors chose research methods based on the implementation of the tasks, from general (synthesis, generalization, sociological survey) to special ones for studying economic processes (categorizing objects and forming a concept). The author's approach made it possible to develop an ecosystem concept in the context of three sections (technological, administrative and communication) containing 19 services.
In 2022, as part of the implementation of the Federal Scientific and Technical Program for the Development of Agriculture for 2017-2030, the Subprogram "Development of breeding and seed production of industrial crops" was adopted, which provides for the development of sub-sectors for the production of fibrous crops based on the creation of new competitive varieties of domestic breeding, ensuring stable growth in the volume of fiber produced and the transfer of seeds of these crops into economic practice, development of the innovation potential of the sub-sector. The paper analyzes the level of production in these sub-sectors, and analyzes in detail the production of flax as the main fibrous crop. The analysis showed that the flax growing sub-sector during the analyzed period (2017-2022) not only did not develop, but stagnated. The acreage under flax has decreased by a third, and gross yields by 34 percent. Russia remains one of the leading countries in the world in terms of acreage of this crop, but produces only 3% of the world's long fiber volume. The quality of flax does not allow to obtain products that satisfy the textile industry, and therefore the production of flax-containing fabrics decreased from 21,806 thousand m2 in 2020 to 12,484 thousand m2 in 9 months of 2023. To obtain high-quality flax trusts, a large amount of agrotechnological work is required – compliance with crop rotations, the introduction of optimal doses of mineral fertilizers, the use of chemical plant protection products and, most importantly, high–quality seed material. According to experts, material costs of at least 35 thousand rubles per hectare of crops are required, and in 2022, in general, for all flax-growing farms, this figure was only 25 thousand, and the share of elite seeds in the cost of seed did not exceed 16.5 percent. In Russia, at the beginning of 2024, only 73 varieties of flax seeds were allowed to be used, of which 8 were of foreign selection. Variety exchange and variety renewal are necessary conditions for obtaining high–quality raw materials, but according to experts, more than half of farms have been using their own seeds for at least 10 years in a row. The paper proposes a number of measures for the further development of flax farming, in particular, at the state level it is necessary to take measures to support the sub-sector, and first of all, to subsidize the purchase of elite seeds as the basis for obtaining high-quality fiber. Due to the existing disparity in prices, it is also necessary to provide for the possibility of subsidizing the purchase of chemical protection products for flax and mineral fertilizers. Only a set of measures aimed at the development of this sub-sector will make it possible to increase the production of flax fiber for both the textile and military industries in a short time.
The subject of "New Normal" poses completely new challenges for science and practice even in such a traditional and stable industry as agriculture [12]. In this regard, one of the most serious scientific and applied tasks is the development of a really working mechanism for the prompt assessment of the "business climate" in the agricultural sector of the economy. The purpose of this study is to study the existing methodological approaches to assessing business activity and determining the nature of the developed system for assessing business activity in agriculture. The work uses SLR (systematic literature review) tools in combination with the use of big data technologies, semantic and content analysis. This study examines existing approaches and methods for assessing business activity, and substantiates its predictive nature. The proposed methodological approach, which combines the tools of classical scientific research and data mining and big-data analysis technologies, allowed not only to generalize the accumulated experience in assessing business activity, but also to substantiate its predictive nature with a certain degree of reliability, which in turn can be used as a basis for selecting indicators for the developed methodology for assessing the “business climate” in agriculture.
The article is devoted to the global market of nitrogen mineral fertilizers and the transformations in its functioning taking place against the background of increasing general geopolitical tension. In order to conduct a comprehensive assessment, the indicators characterizing the volumes of production and consumption of nitrogen fertilizers, as well as the value of export and import commodity flows, were analyzed. The parameters of provision and availability of the main types of raw materials for the production of this group of fertilizers are assessed in detail, the basis of the production process, intermediate and final products, factors and conditions of production placement, capital intensity and timing of construction of production facilities, the scale and type of market, pricing policy, access to the market for new players and the presence of entry barriers, the balance of supply and demand are analyzed. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the development of competition in the market and the level of its concentration, as well as the identification of the main players. In conclusion, a short- and medium-term forecast is given regarding the prices of nitrogen fertilizers and the volumes of their production and consumption in the world.
The article is devoted to the issues of technological independence of the Union State in the context of sanctions pressure. The structure of the Russian market of the main types of agricultural machinery in the context of imports and self-sufficiency is investigated. It was revealed that the greatest dependence on supplies from abroad was observed for complex sowing complexes, which are used when using zero and minimum tillage technologies. An assessment of the level of self-sufficiency with Russian-made seeds is given. The dynamics of the application of mineral fertilizers in agricultural organizations of Russia and the Belarus is studied.