The current state of the agricultural advisory activity and its importance for the development of the agricultural cooperation in Ukraine

Abstract

The article is devoted to researching the current state of the agricultural advisory activity and outlining its importance for the development of the agricultural cooperation in Ukraine. It is established that development of the agricultural advisory activity has a rather long world history: the first references are found in Mesopotamia. In 1847, the first modernized agricultural advisory service was established in Ireland. Subsequently, agricultural advisory services, which at the present stage demonstrate high efficiency indicators for the development of the agricultural sector of the economy, in particular the development of the agricultural cooperation, have spread to other countries of the world, in particular, Germany, Denmark, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy, Japan, the USA, etc. In Ukraine agricultural advisory activity started at the end of the 19th century. In 1995, the first modern agricultural advisory service in Lviv region began to form. Legal regulation of the agricultural advisory activity was introduced in 2004 through the adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the Law of Ukraine «On Agricultural Advisory Activity». In the course of the study, it was determined that agricultural advisory activity is a necessary condition for the effective development of the agricultural cooperatives in Ukraine, because in the conditions of the appearance of the latest innovative agricultural technologies, active updating of the legal acts in the agricultural sphere, taking into account the fact that the level of cooperative education of Ukrainians is not satisfactory, members of the agricultural cooperatives need proper professional informational and advisory support from the agricultural advisory services. At the same time, at the current stage, there continues to be a significant number of factors that restrain the development of agricultural advisory activities and agricultural advisory services, which, as a result, negatively affects the development of the agricultural cooperation. The article concludes that the effective development of the agricultural advisory activities and agricultural advisory services requires proper support from the state.