Conditions and opportunities to realize the agricultural potential of the North

The article shows the role of the agricultural sector of the North in providing the population with fresh food products, preserving the traditional way of life of the indigenous ethnic groups, sustainable de-velopment of the northern territories, and ensuring the country's food security. The organization of agriculture in the north and Arctic territories of Scandinavia, Canada and Alaska and the possibility of its use in the Russian North, considering its own rich historical experience, is discussed in the article. The generalization of agricultural practices in northern countries allows us to recommend the Scandinavian development of agriculture and, above all, the experience of Finland for the European North of Russia. Canadian model of agricultural development is of little use for the Russian North since it was designed for sparsely populated territories. The study revealed the possibilities and limitations of the development of agriculture in the North. The critical points for the socio-economic development in the agrarian sector are the availability of natural and labor resources, the possibility of organizing organic (ecological) production within the traditional industries, the industrial nature of the economy that directs significant financial resources for the industrial modernization and the integrated development of rural areas. The study also revealed the possibilities and limitations of the agricultural development of the North. The constraints of agricultural development and food self-sufficiency are explicit. They are related to extreme natural conditions, low availability of biological resources, the poor technical support of the agrarian sector, low-qualified employees and hard living conditions of peasants, unfavorable external environment, inefficient state support, unavailability of loans, and unsustainable sales of agricultural products. The changes in the agriculture of the northern territories after the All-Russian Agricultural Censuses 2006 and 2016 revealed. The results of the study serve the ground for substantiating conceptual approaches to the development of agricultural production and increasing the level of food self-sufficiency of the local population.