Agri-food system and rural areas: institutional framework for coordinating inclusive sustainable development

In the UN Millennium Declaration, the following are indicated as the main tasks of sustainable development of a market economy until 2030: harmonization, balance of interests of all participants in the system (according to the principles of “priorities through parities” and “no one should be forgotten”), reorientation towards co-evolution. This makes it necessary to assess the possibilities and develop tools for harmonizing the concept of sustainable growth of the agri-food system (APS) and an inclusive model for the development of rural areas within the framework of the country’s development strategy adequate to modern challenges in order to comprehensively solve the problems of food security, inequality (urban-rural village “), the spatial development of the country and its regions. The development of the agri-food system does not necessarily lead to an increase in the income and well-being of the rural population in the long term, which in turn is an indispensable condition for the sustainability of this process. In this regard, the problem of sustainable inclusive development of rural areas acquires an independent sound. The task is to move from separate, very scattered measures for rural development to the development of a new human-centered approach of socio-ecological-economically sustainable, inclusive development with a corresponding clarification of the form-forming feature of state regulation - the social rights of rural residents. It is necessary to look for new directions to reduce inequality and improve well-being, increase the competitiveness of territories and create conditions for their self-development.