Modernization of the Material and Technical Resources in Agriculture of Russia

Abstract

The development of agriculture depends on the provision of material resources and technical means. The pursued state agrarian policy contributed to the strengthening of the material and technical resources of the industry but did not allow solving completely the problem of its modernization. The purpose of the present research is to assess the current status of the material and technical resources of agriculture in Russia and to substantiate the main courses of its modernization. The research was carried out using statistical-economic, computational-constructive, and monographic methods. Agricultural organizations are insufficiently provided with technical means and material resources that hinder using modern technologies. The available capacities for the production of agricultural machinery are not used fully, thus, 15.2% of available capacities are used for the production of tractors, 37.3% – for grain harvesters, 31.5% – for seeders, and 55.1% – for plows. A significant part of the material and technical resources is formed by imports. For some crops (vegetables, corn, sunflower, sugar beet, etc.), the share of imported seeds and hybrids ranges from 50 to 98%, crosses in the production of broilers amount to 95%, machinery – more than 40%. Purchasing material and technical resources are constrained by the increase of their purchase prices. Over 2014-2020, the average price of motor gasoline increased by 35.2%, diesel fuel – by 45.6%, insecticides – by 76.7%, combine harvesters – by 2.4 times, and milking machines and apparatuses – by 2.1 times. Modernization of the material and technical resources of agriculture depends on factors, such as the development of industries producing means of production for the agro-industrial complex, the solvency of the agricultural sector, prices, import and export of material and technical resources, as well as state support.