Development of agriculture in the Vologda oblast in the assessments of heads of agricultural organizations

Agriculture is one of the leading core sectors of the economy; it contributes to food and economic security, demographic, labor, and settlement potential of the country. The fact that less attention was paid to the development of agriculture in the first decade of market transformation in Russia has led to significant public losses, and only in recent years, the authorities at all levels started treating the development of the agrarian sector of the economy as a priority issue. However, agricultural development remains constrained by a number of system problems, solutions to which must be based on objective information and analytical database. It should be noted that on the basis of official statistical data it is possible to identify existing trends and problems in the development of the sector, but it is impossible to register quality changes and separate processes in the modern dynamically changing conditions by means of statistical accounting. In this regard, a questionnaire survey of managers of agricultural enterprises of the Vologda Oblast was conducted in order to study changes in the estimates of production and labor potential, investment and innovation, interaction with various market institutions, functioning in the current political environment (food embargoes, retaliatory sanctions, WTO conditions, etc...