DEVELOPMENT OF DIGITALIZATION IN RURAL TERRITORIES IN THE POST-COVID PERIOD AND ITS IMPACT ON THE AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY

Abstract

The coronavirus pandemic continues to pose serious challenges to agricultural production since 2020. Restrictions on trade in agricultural products affect marketing opportunities and the availability of operational resources. Seasonal labor is becoming scarce, and new consumption patterns and hygiene requirements pose new challenges for the industry. Restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic have led to an unprecedented market situation. In this work, to study the digital divide between rural and urban areas, the profile indicators of rural residents of the Russian Federation who did not have access to the Internet in 2019-2021 were analyzed. The research substantiated the service components of the digital potential of rural areas, which together will allow the development of information and communication technologies in rural areas and agricultural organizations, the skills of people who are participants in the digital transformation of processes in all spheres of rural life. Such service components include: 1) information and communication technologies and infrastructure; 2) digital management of business processes in an agricultural organization; 3) electronic digital business; 4) digital competence and literacy of rural residents and employees of agricultural organizations to assess the possibility of digital interaction with each other. A detailed analysis of trends in the digital gap in the use of the Internet through the construction of logit models made it possible to confirm the results obtained that in the absence of completed secondary education and work, the risk of a rural resident becoming one of those who do not use the Internet, that is, being in “digital isolation”, increases, and more significantly compared to other characteristics considered.