Trends in the development of dairy farming and its state financial support in Ukraine

The importance of dairy farming for food security and the formation of added value in agriculture necessitates a rational combination of market self-regulation mechanisms and instruments of state intervention in economic processes in the sector. The purpose of this study was to assess the development of dairy farming in Ukraine and identify ways to improve its state support. The following methods of scientific cognition were employed in the study: analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, abstract-logical, historical, comparative analysis, monographic, computational-constructive, graphical, tabular, statistical analysis, generalisation, causal and retrospective analysis, analytical alignment of time series, economic modelling, and forecasting. Based on the results of using these methods, the study summarised the current trends in the development of dairy farming in Ukraine and its state financial support using tax and budgetary regulation instruments. The study covered the specifics of the existing structure of dairy farming in Ukraine, which, unlike the countries of the European Union, is represented by three categories of economic entities. It was found that since the early 2010s, Ukraine has been experiencing processes of concentration in the field of dairy farming. The study found a direct correlation between the size of the number of cows kept and the profitability of dairy farming. It was determined that enterprises with up to 100 cows gradually reduce the volume of activities in the dairy farming sector due to its unprofitability. The study assessed changes in the structure of dairy farms in European countries from the mid-1990s to the early 2020s and found that they are also characterised by trends in the concentration of dairy farming. The efficiency of the state financial support for the development of dairy cattle breeding in Ukraine through the instruments of tax and budgetary regulation in the pre-war period and in the martial law regime was assessed. The paper described the advantages and disadvantages of the applied instruments of budgetary support for dairy farming, substantiated proposals for the use of instruments of tax and budgetary stimulation of dairy farming development in the period of post-war economic recovery of Ukraine, considering the existing trends in the development of dairy farming in Ukraine. The practical significance of this study lies in the possibility of using the obtained results in the drafting of policy documents on the post-war development of the agro-industrial complex of Ukraine in general and specifically its dairy subcomplex