The economic efficiency of sunflower seed production in different regions of the Russian Federation

The work was done at the Federal state budgetary scientific institution “All Russian Research Institute of Oil Crops named after Pustovoit V.S.”. The aim was to determine the most economically perspective zones of sunflower seed growing in Russia. The data on sunflower yield and sowing areas for 2005-2013 of the Department of statistics of the Ministry of agri culture of the Russian Federation were used. A calculation of 50 % yield of commercial sowings was used for an estimation of the output of the conditional seeds per a hectare of a reproductive plot. A coefficient of the commercial efficiency of seed growing was calculated due to Fehr''s methodology (1987) as a ratio of yield of the conditional seeds per a hectare of seed growing sowings to sunflower seed sowing rate per a hectare of commercial sowing areas. The significant variation of sunflower sowing areas and yields on years both in a country totally and in separate regions was recorded. A minimal variation of sowing areas was noted in Stavropol, Krasnodar and Voronezh regions (a coefficient of variation 8.9, 9.9, and 10.7 %, respectively). The coefficients of the farms in Voronezh region (12.0 %) correspond to average coefficients in Russia, as the coefficients in Saratov, Rostov and Penza regions were substantially higher (26.6, 27.8, and 53.3 %, respectively). A average coefficient of variation in Russia was 13.6 % with variation from 9.15 in Krasnodar region to 33.3 % in Penza region. The most economically perspective zone for sunflower seed growing is the Krasnodar region (profitability 238 %). The sufficiently high economic efficiency was noted in Voronezh and Stavropol regions (196 and 183 %, respectively). The farms of Rostov and Penza regions (150 and 148 %, respectively) were at the level of the average indicators in Russia (profitability 152 %). The least economically perspective is sunflower seeds production in Saratov and Volgograd regions (profitability 113 and 127 %, respectively).