Theoretical and methodological principles of the formation and development of human capital in the agricultural sphere in the conditions of industry 4.0

Abstract

One of the strategic tasks facing the agricultural industry in modern conditions is finding new sources of economic growth, which is currently impossible without technological modernization of the industry. The use of modern digital technologies is a powerful driver of the competitiveness development in the agricultural industry, which significantly affects labor productivity, the quality of final products, and the cost of manufactured products. Digital technologies are increasingly spreading to agriculture, involving more and more production operations in transformational processes and significantly changing them. Moreover, the replacement of operations performed by employees with digitalized algorithms leads to a reduction in the demand for the labor of low-skilled workers who perform routine operations related to making management decisions. Thus, there is a growing demand for workers who possess not only competencies in the field of agricultural production, but also the knowledge necessary to work with digital devices and robotic systems. It creates an urgent need for the formation and constant updating of these competencies in existing and potential employees of the industry. The state policy implemented in recent decades in the field of formation and development of human capital in the agrarian sphere leads to a significant outflow of the population from rural areas. The current state of most rural areas indicates the absence of unified methods for assessing human potential, the level of development of conditions for its formation, and even an effective state policy aimed at creating an effective mechanism for preventing natural licking of the rural population. It should be noted that the development of the agro-industrial complex is characterized by a number of unresolved socio-economic problems, which determine a significant outflow of the population from rural areas. The transition to the use of modern digital technologies imposes significant requirements on the quality of human capital, which makes it urgent to develop a conceptual approach to the formation and use of human capital in the completely new economic conditions. Keywords: digital agriculture, rural areas, digitalization, personnel potential, human capital, labor productivity, quality of life, socio-economic conditions.