Agricultural producers’ opposition to risks in the agricultural sector of the south of Russia

In the harsh conditions of market realities, the constant sanctions of Western states announced against Russia for a long period, the strongest survive, those who successfully integrated into the system of economic relations, were able not only to adapt to the harsh conditions of the market, but also to increase the profitability of agricultural enterprises, improve activities, technologize many processes in the economy. This article analyzes the experience of profitable family farms in the studied southern Russian regions of the Republic of Kalmykia, Astrakhan and Volgograd regions. For this purpose, we have used materials from regional media and the Internet. Despite certain difficulties with low purchase prices, distribution channels, inaccessible loans, the high cost of feed, veterinarydrugs, equipment, the entire 30-year post-Soviet period has shown that small rural businesses represented by farmers, individual entrepreneurs, are able to meet the growing consumer demand for high-quality and organic food, expanding the range due to the products of regional producers, local brands, adapting the release to the dynamic change in consumer demands. The considered farms not only successfully solve these problems, but also resist a varietyof different risks (natural and climatic, macrosocial, financial), but also are for rural areas the most important factor in preserving rural society, its employment, rural infrastructure. The decline in the number of peasant farms throughout the country, which took place in the previous quarter of a century, should stop and be replaced by a reverse trend. This will indicate that the importance of this rural way of life in ensuring the country’s food independence has been assessed and conditions have appeared for the mass management of family commodity farms, for the sustainable development of the agricultural sector.