Developing territorial differentiation processes of agricultural production in the Non-Black Earth region and their current trends

In the Russian Non-Black Earth Region, an unacceptable contrast remains between the level of socio-economic development of cities and the presence of “desolation zones” in rural areas. In turn, rural areas of the regions are excessively differentiated and polarized. In some areas, innovative agricultural production is developing, and the number of rural residents is growing, in others, commodity production is declining, depopulation is increasing, and social desertification and space compression are taking place there. Socio-economic phenomena in rural areas depend on the directions and rates of dynamics of agricultural production. Hence, the main idea, presented in the article, is the consideration of differentiation process of agricultural production as the primary basis for the heterogeneity formation of rural areas. The purpose of the study is to identify the level and features of the formation of territorial differentiation of agricultural production in the Non-Black Earth Region during the planned (1974-1990) and market (1991-2019) economies, and to determine ways to reduce its excessive redundancy. At the same time, the authors analyze territorial differentiation from two sides: as a process and as a result of this process. Methodologically, the paper considers the development heterogeneity from the standpoint of the “center - periphery” concept and differential rent theory. The work uses the method of multicriteria stratification of the final rank scales. The ranking is carried out according to the Board rule, the countries are determined on ordinal scales using tertiles, quartiles, and quintiles. The article calculates the coefficients of Gini and funds. As a result, the authors have determined a sharp increase in interregional differentiation and polarization in the production of agricultural goods in 1991-2019. According to the dynamics of agricultural production in 1974-1990, there have been identified five types of regions, the rating positions of which have been transformed in six directions in the subsequent period. In conclusion, the authors have determined the aggregate level of interregional differentiation. The study identifies three groups and nine subgroups of regions, and defines the differences between them. The paper establishes current trends of the differentiation process in the production of agricultural goods, and proposes ways to reduce excessive differentiation and polarization of the regions.