ROLE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES IN IMPROVING ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION IN NORTH-WEST RUSSIA
Agriculture in North-West Russia accounts for about 4% of the total energy consumption in the region. The business results of agricultural producers completely depend on natural conditions. The growth in fuel and energy demand and the corresponding increase in gas and electricity tariffs and domestic oil prices, in turn, have generated the momentum for the agricultural producers to save energy, primarily, by organisational and economic measures and by introducing the energy-saving technologies. In previous periods, the farming practices, integrated solutions to energy and water supply, transportation, etc., and the main parameters of agricultural objects (building type, the animal and poultry stock, etc.) were selected by the minimal economic cost criteria, in the first place. At present, the issues of energy efficiency of agricultural production and the possible environmental effect of construction and operation of farming facilities become the top priority. The main related ecological consequence is the excessive supply of nitrogen and phosphorus compounds from land-based sources located within and outside the catchment area. This results in environmental degradation of the Baltic Sea coastal waters. The purpose of the study was to show the role of digital technologies in improving the energy efficiency of agricultural production and environmental safety of rural areas using practical examples of North-West Russia. In modern conditions with due account for the current demographic and environmental situation in regional rural territories, the main way to provide the priority development of agro-industrial complex is to make the agricultural production more intensive, first of all, by automation, complex mechanization and improvement of information technologies. These technologies will contribute to the production of much more various organic foodstuffs and high quality agricultural raw materials per each unit of resources used. The results of the study confirmed the economic feasibility of such technologies for increasing the competitiveness of agricultural production under challenging natural and climatic conditions of the region.