Managing Sustainable Development of Rural Areas Using Algorithms of Agricultural Specialization

Abstract

The aim of this study is to develop a sustainability management system in rural areas through the use of the algorithm for determining agricultural specialization. Methods of determining prospective directions of development of agriculture is developed by the author based on cluster technology and tested in a study of rural areas of the Penza region, situated in the Central European part of Russia. The algorithm includes a number of stages: collection and processing of statistical information, the use of cluster analysis, the use of weighting factors characterize clusters and clustering objects, and the study of marketing, production facilities, climatic conditions. During the clustering of rural areas using k-means, the significance of certain cluster indices is determined (5-10% error). If the factors are not significant, it indicates that the crop can be grown everywhere, or in a limited number of areas, which indicates their specialization. On this basis, the article provides recommendations for a change in direction for the agricultural specialization of Neverkinsk municipality. Thus, differentiation of rural areas, depending on the indicators of socio-economic subsystems and specialization of agricultural production allows to allocate specific ‘points of growth’ to each of them based on suitability to the different types of activities, and to develop targeted programs of the territory management on the basis of step analysis. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n3s5p147