Investment into Individual Farming Households as a Requirement of Ukrainian Food Security

Abstract

The aggravation of the food crisis in the world highlights the problem of finding additional reserves to increase food production. In this context, personal farms of Ukraine attract special attention. They ensure the production of much of the country’s food; contribute to the employment of peasants and the development of rural areas. The aim of this article is to assess the resource and production potential of private farms, as well as to justify the feasibility of using their existing investment instruments. General scientific and special methods are used in the work. The main emphasis is on assessing the resource and production potential of the studied categories of farms. Methods of structural analysis and evaluation of time series have made it possible to establish the link between the level of crisis phenomena and the growing importance of personal farms in the country’s food supply, as well as to compare their potential with the potential of the agricultural sector of the country as a whole. Results of the research. It was found that personal farms play an important role in the country’s food security, as well as in the formation of a system of self-employment and socio-cultural relations. It is established that such farms successfully provide food needs for the rural population, as well as sell surplus products on the market. It has been proved that these economic entities have significant resource and production potential, but expanding the scope of their activities requires a number of measures, including changing the public policy to support farms, as well as ensuring active investment in their development. In the process of assessing the production and resource potential of private farms, it was determined that they have significant resources to invest their own resources in their development. Recommendations on intensification of investment activity of personal peasant farms are generalized; as a result, a number of measures, which can be applied in Ukraine, are resulted. It is established that the key areas for the application of these measures are information and educational activities, strengthening the competitive position of private farms, improving access to public and private investment, as well as diversification of activities. It was agreed that the complex combination of these measures within a single strategy would allow achieving maximum results in terms not only of food supply of the country, but also the development and improvement of welfare of individual rural households.