Agroecological vector of strengthening the social orientation of agriculture

Abstract

The article considers the agroecological model of FAO, consisting of ten elements contributing to achieving agriculture’s economic goals while ensuring social justice and preserving the environment. Based on the analysis of the dynamics of socio-economic indicators, the necessity of changing domestic agriculture’s development strategy to ensure sustainability and strengthen the rural economy’s social orientation has been substantiated. The author characterised the integrity and the complexity of agroecology in the context of achieving sustainable development goals. The paper proposes an agroecological transition to balance agricultural activity’s economic, social, and environmental results and determines the socioeconomic consequences of introducing an agroecological transition. Using the method of expert assessments, the prevalence of agroecological management in different groups of producers and the correspondence of their management methods to the components of agroecology of FAO are analysed. The necessity of forming an institutional environment as a system of norms, rules, motivational mechanisms and stimulating measures, requirements, and control, which will promote the spread of agroecological methods in the agricultural activities of enterprises, has been substantiated. The importance of informing producers about the advantages of agroecological management and introducing pilot (demonstration) projects is characterised; the need for training consultants and initiators on introducing agroecological management methods is outlined. Agroecological methods acquire new relevance in the development of agriculture in post-war Ukraine. The ability to avoid large-scale interruptions in food supply due to the local organisation of production, the change in consumer behaviour of the population towards the use of healthy and environmentally safe food products, the strengthening of local development potential and several other social effects are the advantages of the agroecological transition, which will preserve the multifunctionality of agriculture and strengthen its social orientation and environmental safety.