STRATEGIC ORIENTATIONS FOR AGROINDUSTRIAL REGION DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The article touches upon the problem of food security as one of the main factors of social and economic development of the state. The problem of food security is particularly acute at the regional level, as not all regions can produce the necessary quantities of basic food due to differences in soil and climatic conditions. In the Astrakhan region there has been estimated the degree of security for the main food products; the need to consider both quantitative and qualitative characteristics of food for developing methods of food security assessment is being substantiated. There have been studied the reasons of decreasing the level of food self-sufficiency in the Astrakhan region, which can be explained by inefficient use of arable lands, non-observance of scientifically proved change of crops in time and space, ignoring the principles of agricultural zoning and all-round cultivation of vegetables and potatoes by the producers. To eliminate the negative manifestations in the agricultural production of the region it has been proposed to put into practice the system of strategic management in the agricultural sector of the economy and to develop strategic directions of the agro-industrial complex of the region in order to achieve the standards of food self-sufficiency for basic items of food supply. To assess the competitive advantages of agroindustrial production in the region, it was proposed to test the author's methodology, which provides integrated assessment of the competitiveness of the agro-industrial complex for each rural area of the Astrakhan region based on eight proposed key factors. There has been made a classification of eleven districts of the Astrakhan region on two levels of competitiveness has been carried out and the assessment of the state of the regional agroindustrial complex, which allows to develop strategic directions of development of the agroindustrial complex of the region for the near and long-term prospects.