Territorial differentiation of agricultural production: regional aspect

As a rule, agricultural production in Russia is distributed quite unevenly. Thus, in order to substantiate regional differentiated state support and the agrarian policy of the country as a whole, we consider it appropriate to use typological groupings of regions (municipal districts) in terms of the level of development of agricultural production with a full and accurate description of the characteristics of each of the selected groups. It should be noted that this is especially important for the subjects with a large territory that possess significant differences in natural and climatic conditions. These regions include the Vologda Oblast, which has a large territory, long snow cover, the prevalence of forests and swamps (75 and 12% of the territory of the region); sod-podzol and marsh soils, considerable amount of precipitation, fairly low temperatures and other adverse factors and conditions for agricultural production. Despite this, agricultural production is carried out in almost all municipal districts of the region, and there are a number of positive trends in its development. Our paper studies and clarifies the theoretical and methodological aspects of assessing territorial differentiation of agricultural production, identifies the factors that form the territorial heterogeneity and specialization of agricultural production. We use the materials of the Vologda Oblast to study the regional differentiation of agricultural production and determine the points of growth with the help of defining typological groups (cluster analysis by the method of “average” in the software package “STATISTICA 10”) on the basis of a set of 33 economic indicators characterizing the availability of resources and the results of production activities. As a result, four groups of districts were identified. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study included fundamental works of domestic scientists and economists; we used general scientific research methods (abstract-logical, economic-statistical, sociological, etc.), statistical (grouping, sampling, comparison, etc.), graphical and tabular methods of data visualization. The results of the study can be used by the authorities in the development of measures and directions for sustainable development of agriculture in the region, smoothing the territorial differentiation of agricultural production, and improving regional agri-food policy.