STATE SUPPORT FOR AGRICULTURE IN THE RUSSIAN ARCTIC REGIONS: CURRENT STATE, COMPLIANCE WITH TARGETS, DIRECTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT

The author shows high differentiation in terms of the role of agriculture in regional economies and the level of state support for the industry in the regions of the Arctic zone of Russia, identified as a special priority area in the State Program for the Development of Agriculture. She analyzes the level of state support in various dimensions: as a share in the cost of agricultural production, per ha of agricultural land and rural population, through the Agriculture Orientation Index. The Arctic regions are commonly characterized by higher level of support for agriculture relative to the average for the Russian regions and, with one exception, the outstripping average Russian growth rate of budget expenditures on agriculture. There is evidence of high regionalization of state support in the regions of the Arctic, both based on data on total regional expenditures on agriculture and on individual food subsidies. The correlation coefficient of the level of state support for agriculture with the income of the region is significantly higher than with the achieved indicators of the industry or indicators associated with the level of objective complexity of agricultural production. This leads to the greatest state support for agriculture in the regions of the Arctic zone with high incomes from the extractive industry, and at the same time gives the least favorable conditions for agriculture with relatively weak financing of the European Arctic regions. In addition, the author compares budget expenditures on agriculture in the regional context with indicators of the economic component of food security and development of rural areas. Thus, grant support for farmers and cooperatives within the framework of state support for agriculture creates an additional effect of promoting rural employment. Its effectiveness in terms of jobs created has decreased and more than 50% of the supported projects fall at one region of the Arctic zone. As far as the development of rural areas, only three of the nine regions studied came relatively actively in the implementation of the State Program “Integrated Development of Rural Territories”. The author shows the disbalance in sectoral support for agriculture and support for rural development in the Arctic zone regions.

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