Digitalization of Agricultural Industry – the Vector of Strategic Development of Agro-industrial Regions in Russia

ABSTRACT

Today the strategic vector of agricultural development is connected with the introduction of digital technologies. Digitalization leads not only to transformation of production processes in the industry but as well has much wider environmental, social and institutional context. This paper is aimed at finding out what digital transformations have the most strategic significance for social and economic development of agro-industrial regions of the south of Russia, as well as at revealing the factors fostering or constraining these processes. Digital transformation in the south Russian regions has just affected the first level - application of new information technologies for raising economic performance and simultaneous alleviating environmental problems. The perspectives of digitalization of the agriculture are connected with developing open collaborative systems with different types of business collaborations. The authors highlight the main problems of realizing digital transformations in the agriculture of the south regions solving of which can be provided by means of authorities' institutional decisions within regional strategies of digitalization. This research gives an idea of the potential of agricultural digitalization and its results can be used for forming theoretical and methodological grounds for strategic development of agriculture in agro-industrial regions in modern circumstances.