Involvement of Rural Households in Solving the Problems of Import Substitution
The article considers one of the important forms of the organization of agricultural production - the rural household. Despite a high share of production of milk, meat, vegetables and potatoes, rural households still lacks official recognition as an equal and necessary form of the organization of social production. The purpose of this research is to test the authors’ hypothesis on a reduced role of rural households in meeting the challenges of import substitution and self-sufficiency of the rural population in food products. The livestock output dynamics in specific household categories throughout the period of reform shows a persistent trend from 2003, among the private households to reduce the output of milk, which is one of the most complex types in the system of the import substitution. Self-sufficiency of the rural population in dairy products is one of the feasible ways to provide adequate nutrition. The authors’ methodology has allowed to define that further reduction of milk production output in rural households will complicate the solution of the problem of supplying the rural population with food products. Low income of the rural population will limit access to the essential food products despite the fact whether the production is of domestic or foreign origin. At the state level, the necessity to preserve and develop rural households is a “can-do” task. Its achieving can be facilitated by the state support in setting up cooperatives and other integrated associations for the production and sales of agricultural products with a high level of rural farms there. Our country has an experience of organizing such cooperatives and associations. On the example of small wholesale distributional centres for processing and sales of vegetables and potato, we consider two models (the integrated and cooperative ones). They promote both the growth of confidence of the rural households to the new forms of organizing sales of their products. Moreover, these models empower rural households to increase the volumes of the production and realization of output. The findings, as well as the methodological scheme of the research, can be used when choosing the priority investment destinations, which are crucial for organizing the import substitution and ensuring food security.