Agriinovation system formation in northern regions of Russia: food security and rural development implications

Abstract

The article examines development of food security for the population of northern regions in Russia. To reach the goal of regional food security and to change the declining trends in production, it is necessary to develop in-novative agrifood system model to ensure the priority of social goals over economic development, because providing higher standards of rural liveli-hood will inevitably lead to sustainable development of agricultural pro-duction. The agriinnovation system model should be viewed as a model for the provision of public goods or services. Public goods or services have no value, they are consumed for free; but they do have a cost, since the terri-torial government spends a certain amount of its resources on creating public goods. The article describes a conceptual model of the agri-innovation system developed for Russian northern regions, which would stimulate quality food production. To reach the goal of maintaining re-gional food security and to address the issue of the downward trend in food production it is necessary to ensure the priority of social goals over economic development. Providing higher standards of rural livelihood will inevitably lead to the sustainable development of agricultural production. Our study determined the conceptual foundations of sustainable develop-ment of rural localities of the Russian Arctic regions, to be accomplished through the creation of decent living conditions and the participation of the rural population in quality food production.