Agrarian structure of the Rostov region: level of development and governance mechanisms

Purpose. The article is dedicated to the analysis of the level of development of the agrarian structure, the research of problems and constraints of the functioning of various forms of management in order to identify and study the mechanisms of management of the agricultural sector. Methods. In the course of the scientific research, such methods as monographic, econometric, analytical, abstract-logical, as well as the method of monitoring studies were used. Results. Studies have shown that the Russian agricultural industry is represented by various forms of agricultural management: representatives of large and small agribusiness with a constant increase in the degree of dominance of large agribusiness. However, for some regions, due to the specifics of national, cultural and historical characteristics, the dominance of small agribusiness in the production of agricultural products is characteristic. One of these regions is the Rostov region, where the share of farming and households accounts for 55.4 % of the region's agricultural production. This, in turn, allows us to conclude that it is impractical to shift the emphasis of state regulation and support towards one of the forms of agricultural management. Scientific novelty. Some mechanisms and tools for managing the agrarian structure are proposed to provide for the improvement of the institutional environment and the creation of equal conditions for the development of both small and large agribusiness, as well as taking into account the strengths and weaknesses of the development of each form of agricultural management. In order to determine the most effective and efficient tools and mechanisms for managing the agricultural sector of the economy in relation to a specific region, the implementation of which will activate the potential of both the entire industry and individual agricultural structures, it is proposed to analyze the level of development of the agricultural structure of the region.

Socioeconomic orientation of Christianity

The subject of this research is the socioeconomic basis of the key characteristics of Christianity: proselytizing nature, refutation of violence, fasts, baptism, support of feudalism, negative stance on nomadic pastoralism, system of monasteries, use of churchyards as burials, as well as special cult symbols. The article employs the following methods: 1) material-cultural (juxtaposition of religious views with the level of technological development of a particular era); 2) geophysical (juxtaposition of religious views reflected in historical sources with natural conditions affecting economic activity and emergence of a particular ideology); 3) systemic (Christianity is viewed as an element of state policy aimed at the development of secured trade routes, unobstructed tax collection and control over population); 4) linguistic (analysis of names); 5) hermeneutical (interpretation of Christian symbols in the context of economic activity of ancient times). The conclusion is made that initially Christianity was aimed at solution of the following tasks by the government: 1) development of navigation and creation of secured trade routes (namely sea routes); 2) alleviation of social tension in coastal fortress cities via adoption of a special code of conduct and reduction of urban population through implementation of the system of monasteries; 3) creation of the system of wayside markers and fortified strongpoints for sailors in form of temples and monasteries; 4) development of agricultural structure (namely through posts) for the procurement of coastal fortress cities and organizing long-term sea and land expeditions; 5) displacement of caravan trade routes with sea routes 6)  registration of population by securing the name given at baptism.

Expert-Based Maps as a Regional Planning Tool Supporting Nature Conservation and Production-Integrated Compensation—A German Case Study on Biodiversity Offsets

Many countries worldwide have developed guidelines for offsetting impacts on nature and landscape. Suitable locations are the prerequisite for the implementation of these measures, and this might lead to conflicts with agriculture. In addition, comprehensive planning is often lacking and potential added values for nature conservation are not exploited. Concepts such as the so-called production-integrated compensation (PIC) have been introduced to give farmers the opportunity to actively participate in the offsetting process and improve cooperation. However, up to now, PIC has only rarely been put into practice. Against this backdrop, we have developed a regional planning tool for the implementation of PIC in practice. Based on geodata such as soil data, agricultural structure, or natural conditions at the field and landscape level, the general suitability, and specific measure-based recommendations for each plot can be verified with the help of a decision support system. These factors are assessed from both a nature and an agricultural perspective. The goal here is to highlight synergy effects and increase the likelihood of the proposed measures being implemented. Our tool facilitates the integrated planning of biodiversity offsets at regional level. In this way, it can promote the bundling and networking of measures. However, on-site analyses should be undertaken to complement the implementation of measures.

Analysis of the Thermal Behavior of a New Structure of Protected Agriculture Established in a Region of Tropical Climate Conditions

Determining airflow patterns and their effect on the distribution of microclimate variables such as temperature is one of the most important activities in naturally ventilated protected agricultural structures. In tropical countries, this information is used by farmers and decision makers when defining climate management strategies and for crop-specific cultural work. The objective of this research was to implement a validated Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model in 3D to determine the aerodynamic and thermal behavior of a new protected agricultural structure established in a warm climate region in the Dominican Republic. The numerical evaluation of the structure was carried out for the hours of the daytime period (6–17 h), the results found allowed to define that the CFD model generates satisfactory predictions of the variables evaluated. Additionally, it was found that airflow patterns are strongly affected by the presence of porous insect screens, which generate moderate velocity flows (<0.73 m s−1) inside the structure. It was also identified that the value of the average temperature inside the structure is directly related to the air flows, the level of radiation and the temperature of the outside environment.

Thirty-Year Dynamics of LULC at the Dong Thap Muoi Area, Southern Vietnam, Using Google Earth Engine

The main purpose of this paper is to assess the land use and land cover (LULC) changes for thirty years, from 1990–2020, in the Dong Thap Muoi, a flooded land area of the Mekong River Delta of Vietnam using Google Earth Engine and random forest algorithm. The specific purposes are: (1) determine the main LULC classes and (2) compute and analyze the magnitude and rate of changes for these LULC classes. For the above purposes, 128 Landsat images, topographic maps, land use status maps, cadastral maps, and ancillary data were collected and utilized to derive the LULC maps using the random forest classification algorithm. The overall accuracy of the LULC maps for 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020 are 88.9, 83.5, 87.1, and 85.6%, respectively. The result showed that the unused land was dominant in 1990 with 28.9 % of the total area, but it was primarily converted to the paddy, a new dominant LULC class in 2020 (45.1%). The forest was reduced significantly from 14.4% in 1990 to only 5.5% of the total area in 2020. Whereas at the same time, the built-up increased from 0.3% to 6.2% of the total area. This research may help the authorities design exploitation policies for the Dong Thap Muoi’s socio-economic development and develop a new, stable, and sustainable ecosystem, promoting the advantages of the region, early forming a diversified agricultural structure.

Metrics of the ratio of functional limits of large agribusiness (regional aspect)

The purpose of the article is to study the problem of measuring the functional limits of integrated agricultural formations in the region. The conducted research allowed us to determine the optimal size of a large agribusiness in the region. In particular, for the current economic conditions of the region, the most effective type of integration associations, their optimal size in terms of area and the average number of employees were determined. The conceptual provisions of the proposed algorithm and its practical conclusions can be used by regional authorities in order to form an optimal agricultural structure. The identification of the optimal size of modern integrated formations will contribute to the planned and sustainable growth of the welfare of rural workers, the accelerated implementation of the export-oriented strategy, providing a multiplicative effect on the basis of large-scale innovative and technological modernization of agricultural sectors. The algorithm of estimation of efficiency of functioning of the integrated agricultural formations of the region reveals advantages of agricultural producers in the region of medium size, freely adapting to changing conditions and deprived of the shortcomings of large integrated groups and small sector.

Proposals for Improving and Implementing the «Strategy for Economic Development of Donetsk and Luhansk Regions until 2030»

On the basis of generalization of scientific and practical developments of economic research centers of the country and leading domestic scientists on a set of problems concerning overcoming of consequences of war in Donbass, taking into account works of authors on the given subject, proposals on improvement and implementation of the "Strategy of economic development of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts for the period up to 2030" (SED), presented by the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, are substantiated. The necessity and urgency of such a state legal act is emphasized (with the recognition of the country's economic and institutional losses due to ignoring its adoption in previous years). In order to elaborate the systemic principles of improvement and effective practical implementation of the discussed document in the context of development and implementation of medium- and long-term national plans for socio-economic development in the SED it is proposed to define optimistic, basic and pessimistic scenarios and time parameters of reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions into a single legal, economical and institutional (including - informational) field of Ukraine with further identification of the basic (most probable) scenario - within 7-10 upcoming years: during 2028-2030. Among the other proposed measures of state regulatory policy are: determination of additional expected results of adoption and effective and socially responsible implementation of the SED in relation to increase of the investment attractiveness of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and formation of an effective management system for newly formed communities (with substantiated relevant Indicators 2030); departure from the generalized approach to the characterization of the territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts controlled by Ukraine; taking into account and reflecting in the SED the agricultural structure and the direction of functioning of the modern regional subcomplex of Luhansk region (with proposals of improving the structure of the agro-food sector of Luhansk region), as well as the necessity to identify priority "growth points" of socio-economic development of Donetsk and Luhansk regions (with the selection of such "growth points" on the example of the Luhansk region).

Automatic Detection of Dominant Crop Types in Poland Based on Satellite Images

The assumption of the European Union Common Agricultural Policy is to maintain good agricultural practices for sustainability in the environment. A number of requirements are imposed on farmers, including the maintenance of permanent grassland, fallow land or crop diversification. To meet these requirements, the European Union guarantees subsidies, but at the same time fields must be monitored focusing on crop identification. The limitation of field inspection and substituting it with crop recognition using satellite images could increase the effectiveness of this procedure. The application of satellite imagery in automatic detection and identification of dominant crops over a large area seems to be technically and economically sound. The paper discusses the concept and the results of automatic classification based on a Random Forests classifier performed on multitemporal images of Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8. A test site was established in a complex agricultural structure with long and narrow parcels in the south-eastern part of Poland. Time-series images acquired during the growing season 2016 were used for multispectral classification in different configurations: for Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 separately and for both sensors integrated. Different Random Forests approaches and post-processing methods were examined based on independent data from farmers’ declarations records, reaching the best accuracy of over 90% for crops like winter or spring cereals. Overall accuracy of the classification ranged from 72% to 91% depending on the classification variant. The elaborated scheme is novel in the context of Polish complex agricultural structure and smallholders.

METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF TYPIFICATION OF RUSSIAN REGIONS BASED ON THE ANALYSIS OF THE INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE ECONOMY OF THE AGRO-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

The article provides a literary review, systematizes approaches to the allocation of types of agricultural structure of Russian regions, and develops a method for allocating types of Russian regions according to the degree of development of agriculture, the food industry, and the branches of the economy that serve agriculture. This method takes into account the ratio of agribusiness industries, which we have grouped into three areas: I sphere (industries that produce products consumed by the II and III spheres of agriculture; 2 types of economic activity), II sphere (agriculture; 6 types of economic activity), III sphere (industries that process agricultural products or provide various services to them; 3 types of economic activity). Taking into account the coefficient of localization of agricultural production, three groups of regions were identified: agro-industrial, industrial and agricultural, as well as regions for which the agro-industrial complex is not a branch of their specialization. On the example of Russian regions, the developed methodology was tested: the structure of regions was dominated by agroindustrial regions (52.4% of the studied population), 20 and 19 regions were assigned to industrial-agricultural and other territories, respectively. The results obtained are important for authorities at all levels in their formation of agricultural policy, the concept of demographic development, and structural changes in the economy.

Analysis of the characteristics of connotation evolution of agricultural modernization with Chinese characteristics in the 70 years since the founding of New China

PurposeWith the development of social productive forces and the advancement of agricultural practices since the founding of New China, the connotation of agricultural modernization with Chinese characteristics has undergone a process from formation to continuous expansion and deepening.Design/methodology/approachIts evolution can be roughly divided into four stages: the exploration stage, the formation stage, the establishment stage and the deepening stage. The historical evolution of the connotation of agricultural modernization with Chinese characteristics demonstrates four typical characteristics, namely increasingly scientific logical premise, continuously diversified orientations, increasingly improved core contents and progressively maturing strategies of development.FindingsThe achievements of agricultural modernization have laid a solid foundation for China's industrial modernization and the rapid development of the national economy. Meanwhile, the authors have identified through practical exploration a path of agricultural modernization with Chinese characteristics. In recent years, academic research on the connotation of agricultural modernization with Chinese characteristics has gradually heated up, and relevant achievements have emerged constantly.Originality/valueThe Communist Party of China (hereinafter “CPC”) has placed considerable emphasis on agricultural issues and has been committed to promoting agricultural modernization since the founding of New China. Through long-term persistence and unremitting efforts, China has made remarkable achievements in agricultural development: significantly improved agricultural production conditions and agricultural output capacity, constantly optimized agricultural structure and steadily increased the income of farmers.