Strategic ways of economic development of agriculture in Ukraine

The article provides data with respect to the modern state and tendencies of development of the agrarian sector of Ukraine. The issue of the optimal size of an agricultural enterprise is discussed in the scientific literature. The world practice shows that competitive advantages of farms are achieved through their unification for creation of various partnerships and co-operatives, which operate on the unprofitable basis. Powerful industrial enterprises, financial, trading and service structures took advantage of absence of co-operatives and monopolised production of agricultural products, holding significant areas of agricultural land on lease. Today, ten biggest Ukrainian agro-holdings have more than three million hectares of land or 7.5% of all lands. Big capital, trying to maximise profit, is specialised, as a rule, in mono-production. The article shows main ways of strategic development of agriculture in Ukraine. Depending on the main form of farm management, there are two directions of further development of agro-industrial production: development of big agro-industrial formations (branch organisation of agro-industrial production and vertical integration in the agro-industrial complex (AIC)) or co-operatives (territorial organisation of agro-industrial production and horizontal integration in AIC). Depending on the way selected by the state, an organisational and economic mechanism is created. The article develops conceptual grounds of state regulation of AIC in the context of development of major agro-industrial formations and agricultural service co-operatives.