Financing innovations in the agricultural industry as a component of the digital development of Ukraine’s economy

Abstract

Innovative development of the economy is a condition for stable growth, which holds particular importance for the agricultural sector, elevating the management of biological assets to a significantly higher level. This study aims to determine the potential for innovative development in the agricultural sector of Ukraine and investigate the peculiarities of its financing. General scientific methods and hermeneutic methods were applied, along with statistical and correlation methods, to identify the connection between influencing factors. Tabular and graphical methods were used to present the results, and generalization was employed for drawing conclusions. The study assessed Ukraine’s positions in the Global Innovation Index (2014-2022), which is relatively low, decreasing from 63 to 57 over the period. However, it shows potential in components like human capital, the business environment, and scientific research. The dependency of the growth of agricultural GDP on various factors was identified through correlation and variance analysis, particularly through the advancement of innovations. The structure of GDP dynamics reveals a decline in the agricultural sector by 28% in the wartime of 2022 compared to 2021, while the information and telecommunication sector only decreased by 7%. If the pre-war level of government spending on financing agricultural innovations was 80% of the total, covering only the reproduction of conditions for the formation of scientific products, even raising it to 90% during the wartime does not meet real needs. Scientific and educational expenditures of the Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food from 2018 to 2023 decreased by 22% in terms of funds, while their share increased from 4.45% in 2018 to 8.57% in 2023 due to the overall decrease in funding by 67%. Based on the assessment of the state of financing innovations in the agricultural sector to enhance them, a systematic approach to choosing financing sources was proposed. An optimal financing scheme for agricultural innovations was built based on consolidated sources under the conditions of forming a financial cluster. The practical significance of the research lies in the possibility of using its results in developing a strategy for post-war recovery of the agricultural sector. This involves evaluating the effectiveness of models for financial support of innovative development