Problems and ways of farm economy development in the context of global challenges

The article is an important study on the contribution of approaches to the theory of development to the development of agricultural economics. It presents the main achievements applied in approaches to the theory of stages of economic development, the theory of production and the theory of the relationship between growth and income inequality. The data are collected from publications of statistical offices of several countries around the world, as well as from scientific articles related to theories and empirical studies of economic development of farms. The research is based on traditional methods of historical science: problematic, comparative historical and systemic. The results show that there is no economically optimal agricultural structure; rather, it seems that it evolves depending on the stage of economic development. Today, when the world agriculture is experiencing a crisis in new conditions, it is important to objectively assess the experience of the development of farms in the countries of the world and draw the necessary recommendations from this. The key areas of development of the modern farming economy are: strengthening the role of agricultural cooperatives, stimulating the creation of procurement, supply and sales structures, the development of credit cooperation, facilitating the connection of farms to global value chains, implementation of digital transformation in agriculture.