Analysis of the development of production of labor-intensive crops in the regional agricultural system (using protected soil vegetable growing as an example)

Relevance. Implementation of the program "Development of agriculture and regulation of markets for agricultural products, raw materials and food in the Saratov region"; introduction of new types of equipment for obtaining high-quality seedlings and vegetables requires an increase in labor, material costs and additional capital investments. Methods. Statistical data were collected from the “Accounting reports” of the Saratov region (SR): Form No. 5APK, Form No. 9APK, etc. General scientific methods of induction and deduction were used to calculate and analyze the main cost and physical indicators: economic, statistical, mathematical. Results. The results of the analysis of the main economic and financial indicators of greenhouse complexes - leaders of the Saratov region for the period 2014-2023 were demonstrated. Overall, the region has seen an increase in areas, including: by 50.34 p.p., 28.04 p.p., 27.12 p.p., 2.28 p.p. in REHN LLC, Volga JSC, Leto-2002 LLC, and Sovkhoz-Vesna JSC, respectively. Income also has an upward trend, which is associated with higher growth rates of consumer prices over the growth rates of unit cost of production by 14.77 percentage points in the region as a whole. Direct labor costs per 1 centner of vegetables averaged 4.26 man-hours for 2014–2023, which is 6.9 times higher than labor costs per unit of grain production; however, over the past decade, there has been a trend toward a significant reduction by 43.37% (from 6.13 to 3.47 man-hours). Conclusion. An in-depth analysis of the company's financial and economic activities, including a forecast based on a polynomial equation and planning using the least-squares trending method, revealed changes in the industry's economic parameters for the purpose of shaping investment potential.