The strategic directions of import substitution in the Russian market of the equipment for plant protection and application of fertilizers

The import substitution problem in the market of the equipment for agrochemical works is considered in the article. The data concerning the main types of agricultural machinery for crop tending and plant protection, a ratio of a number of domestic and foreign machinery in the Russian market of the equipment for agrochemical works and the main producers of sprayers and spreaders of mineral fertilizers and also volumes of their realization within the measures of the State program of the development of agriculture and regulation of the markets of agricultural production, raw materials and food for 2013-2020 are given in it. The research was carried out in the context of combined researches and scientists’ coordination from the Federal State Funded Research Institution of the Federal Research Center of All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Agricultural Economics and the thematic plan of the Russian Federation 0569-2015-0013 "Improving the organizational and economic mechanism of equipment and material maintenance of livestock branches under the conditions of import substitution in the resource markets". The export potential of agricultural engineering industry in the Russian Federation was the object of the research. The sources of the empirical information were the data of the official statistics and data of the All-Russian agricultural census of 2016 and data of the Ministry of Agriculture. Currently, the problem of import substitution is very relevant, including the full provision of the country with domestic agricultural production and its food independence from imports, as well as import substitution in the Russian agricultural machinery market due to economic sanctions imposed by Western governments. A further increase in the volume of crop production is possible only because of modern agricultural technologies and modern equipment for agrochemical works. Therefore, import substitution in the market of equipment for agrochemical works is of great importance for ensuring food independence of Russia. Taking into account the above information, we conducted a study aimed at justifying the export orientation of agricultural engineering. The questions of the state support for the development, creation, testing and introduction of new equipment and also the state support for the stimulation of technical and technological modernization of the agriculture are considered in the article as well.