Economic assessment of the strategy for increasing production in regions with underdeveloped potato growing

Relevance. Potatoes have a high nutritional value and therefore, being an integral element of the population's nutrition system, play an important role in ensuring the country's food security. The current course of Russia's agricultural policy is focused on increasing the export of agricultural products, in connection with which the task of activating supply growth becomes relevant. In these conditions, a strategy is needed that allows increasing the production potential of the product, including in regions promising for the development of potato growing. Purpose of the study consisted of conducting an economic assessment of the strategy for increasing production potential in regions with underdeveloped potato growing. Material and methodology. The correlation method determined that the growth of potato production volumes and changes in its sown areas in organizations are influenced mainly by the costs of purchasing seeds and chemical plant protection products. A methodological approach is proposed that allows substantiating the potential optimal growth of potato sown areas, including a system of proposed criteria (coefficients of interrelations of the sought indicators, industry specialization of the region and enterprises, the share of potato area in the overall structure of agricultural land). Results. Based on the results of the study, a strategy was developed to increase potato production based on current government support measures and advanced innovations in the field of variety renewal, plant protection, modernization of irrigation systems and storage of commercial products. An economic assessment of the proposed measures was carried out using the example of commodity producers in a typical agricultural region (Saratov Oblast). The multiplier effect that can be obtained in the future when implementing the developed strategy will be: the area under potatoes and its output in the region will increase by 22.3 and 67.6%, respectively. The costs and profitability of tuber crop production in the studied enterprises will increase: taking into account the organization of sprinkling by 34.9% and 7.81 p.p., respectively; drip irrigation - by 35.7% and 7.45 p.p., respectively.