AGRICULTURAL INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES WITHIN THE REGION: RISKS AND DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES

Abstract

The article examines investment opportunities in agriculture, in terms of the food security. Investment highlights as well as the basic risks are defined. Low output profitability, outstanding debt liabilities of the agricultural organizations, differentiation of the agricultural investment opportunities on the area basis as well as differentiation of the companies providing services within the industry according to their ability to raise the external funds are considered to be the principal risks for the Smolensk Region. Based on the state control and regulation pattern in agriculture, there were defined actions to be taken in order to improve investment opportunities in agriculture - this is a budgetary financing of priority sectors. The key farming sector in the Smolensk Region is considered to be dairy cattle breeding: according to the estimated and forecasted development, it is possible to expand the cow population by more than 20 % and to practically double the amount of milk produced by using high technologies. The support of investors will lead to better infrastructure development, including storage facilities, processing plants, technical maintenance. The sales of products remain another big problem: this risk results in losses despite the efforts of the landowners, therefore future state control shall be aimed at further expansion of the sales channels.