Socio-Economic Transformations in Ukraine towards the Sustainable Development of Agriculture

Abstract

The social and economic conditions of all market participants are incentives and constraining factors influencing the levels of food, social, economic and ecologic security. The purpose of the article lies in the presentation of the author’s concept of the social and economic conditions where the transformation of economic relations between agrofood market participants is happening—in particular, the livestock products market of Ukraine—and the assessment of the state of food security of the country, as well as a comparison, by the same criteria, of the conditions of agrofood market participants in Ukraine and in four European countries: Germany, France, Italy, and Poland. This research was based on the application of empirical knowledge methods: observation, comparison, description, measurement, statistic methods, etc. So far, the participant functioning conditions in the agricultural market in Ukraine are unfavorable for the sustainable development of agriculture, especially the livestock industry. The debt burden of external creditors is growing, the amount of direct investments from the countries of the world decreases, and the growth of capital investment in terms of calculation per one employee is slowing down. The food security of Ukraine is unstable. The “market” itself is not capable of remedying all the negative phenomena. Therefore, it is necessary to apply the weighted power of the state.