Current practice and prospects of development of agricultural production in Odesa region

Abstract

Goal. To develop a system of agricultural production that will greatly increase net revenue and provide a short payback period of capital costs, in particular for the restoration of the irrigation. Methods. Mathematical-statistical, computational and comparative, correlation, economic, analysis of system synthesis, multivariate computer simulation. Results. At the constant rise of the temperature regime, the repetition rate of highly and moderately dry years in the dry zone has reached 80%. In such circumstances, the urgency of the restoration of irrigation areas is of utmost need. The modern widespread practice of a productive activity is farming of winter cereals and sunflower with a profitableness of 100–150 USA dollars/ha, which is usually accompanied by degradation of soil. At the irrigation with balanced precursors of crop rotations with corn and soybeans, this figure will rise to 500–600 USA dollars/ha. However, the volume of capital expenditures for the reconstruction of reclamation systems in size of 3000–5000 USA dollars/ha their payback periods will be most unacceptable. Therefore, the prospect is for the cultivation and production of tomatoes and walnuts. However, areas of these crops are restricted by demand. To achieve a massive increase in net profit is possible through the development of infrastructure of agricultural enterprises with a balanced production of meat and dairy products, sugar, oil, bioenergy, and organic fertilizers. Due to the high level of recycling of nutrients and provision with their resources the cost of «organic» food is on 30–40% lower as compared to the common technological chain. This will ensure a sufficiently high level of competitiveness and liquidity of large volumes of high-quality products. A high level of profitability of such production systems will quickly recoup the cost of all the components of the proposed infrastructure, including the restoration of irrigation. Conclusions. The modern common practice of cultivation in the dry zone for rainfed winter grain and sunflower seeds is futile. It is advisable to solve the problem of restoration of irrigation and the drastic increase in the profitability of agricultural production by the formation of bioenergy agro-ecosystems on the whole area of reclaimed lands. With capital expenditures at the level of 10000 USA dollars/ha the production yield can rise to 8000 or more USA dollars/ha with a payback period of 2–3 years. The widespread adoption of such production systems is limited by the difficulties involved in attracting large amounts of available financial resources and the absence of a land market.