Differentiation of rural areas for implementing support measures for organic agriculture

. This paper considers approaches to improving the effectiveness of state support measures for organic agriculture based on the differentiation of territories according to the potential of the relevant economic activity. The shortcomings of some existing methodologies are identified: excessive number of private indicators, complicating the assessment; use of indicators not included in the system of statistical reporting of rural areas; use of indicators for a single reporting period. The system of indicators and approach to the clustering of rural areas according to the overall development potential of organic agriculture, as well as of organic crop and livestock production are proposed. The proposed method is implemented on the example of a separate subject of the Russian Federation. A distinctive feature of the proposed approach is the abandonment of the use of indicators characterizing environmental conditions and their consideration through the assessment of the performance of traditional agriculture. The differentiation of territories using the proposed approach can be used to identify priority areas in terms of the application of organisational and financial measures to support organic agriculture by regional authorities.


Introduction
Organic farming has become increasingly widespread around the world in the last decade.As of 2019: organic production was taking place in 187 countries; organic farmland covered 72.3 million hectares; wild plants meeting the principles of organic production were harvested on 35.1 million hectares; 3.1 million producers were producing; and the organic market was €106.4 billion.The development of organic agriculture in the world is characterised by heterogeneity.The leading countries in terms of area of organic farmland are Argentina, Australia, Spain; in terms of the number of producers of organic products -India, Uganda, Ethiopia; in terms of market volume of organic products -the USA, Germany, France.The main global markets for organic products are the markets of developed countries, countries with higher incomes.On average, the consumption of organic products per capita in the world amounted to 14 euros, in the leading countries the consumption of organic products is significantly higher: Denmark (344 euros), Switzerland (338 euros), Luxembourg (265 euros) [1].Russia, while at the forefront of the world in terms of food supply, lags far behind in the pace of development of organic production.According to FAO, the share of organic land in our country is only 0.3% of all agricultural land, more than a third of producers focus on the export of their products, while the domestic demand for organic products is not covered by domestic production [2].Given the growing global market for organic products and the possibility of saturation of the domestic market, even taking into account the current problems in the domestic and global economies, the development of organic production in Russia can be considered a priority to increase the sustainability of the agricultural sector.The spread of organic agriculture is determined by the influence of many socio-economic and natural-climatic factors; their study is one of the areas of scientific research of both domestic and foreign scientists.The results of the assessment of the relationship between certain socio-economic factors and spatial features determining the development of organic production show a low but statistically significant correlation between dependent and independent variables.The main factors in the transition to organic agriculture are the individual propensity of specific farms to such a transition, their commitment to environmental sustainability and established traditions [3], as well as government support and the level of subsidies for producers of organic products, especially in the initial stage [4,5].In other words, it is not possible to identify any natural environmental factors that are highly likely to guarantee the successful development of organic agriculture in a given area.But the initiative of agricultural producers, born and financially supported by the state, can be decisive for the spread of organic agriculture.In this regard, the problem of differentiation of individual territories according to their potential for the development of organic agriculture can be identified in order to work out effective mechanisms of state support for the production of organic products, improving the relevant sphere of state environmental policy.Identification of the most promising areas in terms of organic agriculture development is particularly important in the context of limited financial resources allocated by the state to stimulate and support producers of organic products.Approaches to the evaluation of individual regions or territories are based on the study of indicators characterising certain factors significant for organic production.For example, A.Yu. Egorov proposes a methodology to assess the potential for the development of organic production on the territory of certain constituent entities of the Russian Federation based on three groups of indicators.The first group -indicators that characterise the overall potential for the development of agroindustrial complex: the availability of agricultural land, livestock per 1000 hectares of arable land, availability of fixed assets and their level of wear, investments in fixed assets renovation.The second group consists of indicators describing the environmental component: the amount of applied mineral fertilizers, the volume of emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere and water.The third group consists of indicators characterising the standard of living: income and consumer expenditures of the population, share of poor population.The result of the assessment is the assignment of regions to a certain cluster, characterized by different levels of values of certain groups of indicators [6].In order to identify the regions with the most suitable conditions for organic agriculture, A.G. Paptsov and coauthors offer a system of indicators grouped by certain criteria.As in the previous methodology, it is proposed to use the indicators for assessing environmental conditions, the availability of productive resources, the population's income.Additionally, there are indicators for road infrastructure and Internet availability, the proportion of the urban population, the ability of the region to financially support organic producers, the availability of information and advisory services, and the number of organic producers already operating in the region.The result of the assessment is an integral indicator for the region, calculated on the basis of 12 private indicators [7].Similar methodologies can also be used to identify priority areas for the development of organic production within a separate subject of the Russian Federation.For example, N.D. Zavodchikov and coauthors within the framework of developing the model based on the materials of the Orenburg Oblast suggest using 25 indicators grouped by blocks, characterising environmental and technological conditions, economic and organisational conditions of management, availability, and condition of production resources [8].In order to better distribute state subsidies to support producers, some researchers propose to use indicators to assess the suitability of agricultural land for organic production.The factors are divided into favourable factors and those that hinder the development of organic agriculture.The stimulating indicators include: an integral indicator that takes into account the quality of soil, climatic conditions, terrain, the area of meadows and pastures, the area of agricultural land in the vicinity of protected natural areas, the area of agricultural land with rich humus content.The authors refer to the following discouraging indicators: the area of low fertile soils; the area of agricultural land with a heavy metal content above the natural background, as well as acid soils [9].Thus, the methods proposed by researchers to identify priority and (or) more promising areas for the development of organic agriculture are based on similar principles, taking into account natural, socioeconomic, resource factors.The differences lie in the combination of the indicators used, methods of their processing, and interpretation.In our opinion, a number of factors can be singled out as disadvantages of such methodologies.First, the excessive number of indicators used for evaluation.This approach makes the assessment more complicated and labourintensive, but it does not improve the quality of the assessment.Secondly, the use of indicators that are not reflected in the statistical reporting system, which requires additional work to collect them, negatively affects the comparability of indicators.Another disadvantage is the use of single-year indicators for the assessment.The values of annual indicators are more susceptible to the influence of random factors, which may lead to an inadequate assessment of the potential of the analysed areas.In addition, as practice shows, the dynamics of the development of organic production in some subjects of the Russian Federation is largely dependent on the activities of regional authorities.Therefore, from a practical point of view, it seems more relevant not to identify priority regions for the development of organic agriculture, but to identify rural areas (municipal districts) within one subject that have more potential in this area.The development and testing of such a methodology is the purpose of this study.

Materials and methods
The study was based on the Penza Oblast.Penza region is a subject of the Russian Federation, the population on January 1, 2023 was 1.25 million people, including rural population of 0.4 million.The study proposes an approach to differentiate rural areas by priority of implementation of state support measures for organic agriculture.Data for 27 rural municipal areas for the three-year period 2019-2021 were analysed.In developing the proposed approach, the requirement of sufficiency for the analysis of data generated by the state statistical recording system was taken into account.The information base for obtaining the analysed data is the statistical database of the municipalities of the Penza Oblast.
The differentiation of districts is proposed to be carried out according to the following algorithm.The first stage involves the selection of rural areas characterised by a greater potential for the development of organic agriculture in general, without reference to a particular industry or type of activity.The sample is then used to rank the districts according to their organic farming and organic livestock development potential.The following indicators are proposed for analysis (Table 1).

Indicators The value of the indicator that determines its use
Stage 1 of the selection process: ranking of districts according to overall organic agricultural development potential 1. Three-year average population in the district, people characterises the general level of socio-economic development of an area, its attractiveness to the population, and the ability and capacity of local authorities to create favourable economic and infrastructural conditions 2. Average growth rate of the district's population over three years, in fractions of a unit 3. Value of agricultural production in farms of all categories, thousand roubles characterises the scale of agricultural activity achieved, reflecting to some extent the attractiveness of agricultural production in the area The sequence of calculations within the second and third stages is conditional in this case; they can be interchanged, as in each case the selection is based on a sample of districts obtained after the implementation of the first stage.The use of summary indicators, in our opinion, allows us to simplify the calculations without losing the quality of the results obtained.The methodology does not provide for the use of indicators reflecting the environmental conditions of farming, since the requirements for product safety do not differ in relation to organic and traditional agriculture.Consequently, the development of traditional agriculture in an area implies the possibility of organising organic agriculture production in that area as well.Crop yields in organic farming are generally lower than in conventional agricultural systems [10].With this in mind, the size of the cultivated area is important for the development of organic farming in the area, as it may be necessary to expand it during the transition of the farm to organic activities in order to maintain the scale of production.Indicators that characterise the development of farms in the district are used in the calculations for the following reasons: farms tend to be characterised by more ecological activities with less environmental impact compared to large farms; farms are more receptive to the idea of conversion to organic farming.The comparison of districts according to the selected indicators at each stage was carried out using the taxonometric method, resulting in the ranking of rural municipal districts in terms of proximity to the sample benchmark.

Results and discussion
The use of the proposed methodology aims to identify the most promising rural municipal areas for the application of organisational and financial resources by regional authorities aimed at the development of organic agriculture.The number of selected districts at each stage can be determined subjectively by the decision maker, taking into account the administrative and financial resources available for use.The methodology was implemented by us on the materials of the Penza region.Initial data and intermediate calculations are presented in the appendix.The results of the ranking are presented in Table 2.According to the results of the first stage of selection, 18 rural municipal districts (2/3 of the analysed population) were selected for further analysis.Then, in the second and third stages, the best 10 districts with a potentially higher probability of developing organic farming and organic livestock production were selected.At the same time, six districts (in bold in the table) were included in both the first and the second sample (with different levels of priority).These districts should be classified as a cluster of priority recipients of the regional organic farming policy.It is also possible to identify four districts that passed the first stage of the selection but did not get into the final samples.In other words, these are districts characterised by a generally high potential for the development of organic production, but without a pronounced sectoral priority.These areas can be classified as a "second-tier" cluster, an area of scaling up the successful experience of the first cluster areas.The range of change in the distance from the benchmark for indicators characterizing the development potential of organic crop production is less than that obtained in the assessment of the development potential of organic livestock production.Consequently, the rural areas selected in the second stage are more homogeneous in terms of the adopted indicator system.It is impossible to compare the actual level of organic agriculture development in the districts and the assessment of their potential at the moment, since only one certified organic producer operates in the region, in Mokshansky district, producing organic wheat (it should be noted that this district was selected based on the results of both the second and third stages).

Conclusions
The proposed methodology can be used to identify more promising areas in the studied population of territories (entities, municipal districts) in terms of the probability of organising economically efficient production of organic products.The identified areas should become priority areas for the regional authorities to stimulate the creation of economic entities, producers of organic products.These areas can then become drivers for the spread of successful organic farming to other areas.Paradoxically, the system of indicators used to differentiate the territories can be excluded from the system of indicators characterising environmental conditions.Products from conventional agriculture and food processing must meet the same safety requirements as organic products.Obviously, if there are areas in the region where conventional agriculture is prohibited, there is no reason to consider organic production.Conversely, if there is farming in the area, it is ecologically feasible to convert to organic production.Thus, the indicators of environmental assessment (number of pollution sources, volume of emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere, water environment, etc.) can be replaced by the assessment of the scale of agricultural production and (or) its processing and the assessment of the efficiency of traditional agricultural production.The differentiation of municipal districts in terms of the development potential of organic production for the purpose of improving the regional policy of support should take into account the production of specific types of organic products.For organic livestock production, producers must have access to appropriate forage, that is, organic farming is primary to organic livestock production.In turn, organic farming requires the use of large quantities of organic fertilisers, the transport of which over long distances is not economically viable.Organic farming is therefore dependent on the availability of cattle in the area.

Acknowledgement
The research was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation, grant № 22-28-20515, https://rscf.ru/project/22-28-20515on the basis of the Penza State Technological University.

4 .
Value of agricultural production in farms, thousand roubles characterises the achieved scale of farms as entities potentially interested in the transition to organic agriculture 5. Number of cattle in farms of all categories, heads the availability of livestock provides producers with access to organic fertilisers, the use of which is the basis for the development of organic farming and, consequently, organic livestock farming Stage 2 of the selection process: ranking the districts according to their organic farming potential 1. Cost of crop production in farms of all categories, thousand roubles describes the extent of crop production achieved in the area 2. Crop area in farms of all categories, hectares 3. Cost of crop production in farms, thousand roubles describes the role of farms in crop production 4. Number of profitable crop production organisations in the district on average over three years, units characterises the potential profitability of crop production activities in the area under the influence of the whole range of socio-economic factors 5. Cost of crop production per 1 ha of sown area, RUB thousand per 1 ha.characterises the performance of the sown area in the district Stage 3 of the selection process: ranking the districts according to their organic livestock development potential 1. Cost of livestock products in farms of all categories, thousand roubles describes the scale of livestock production achieved in the area 2. Cost of livestock production in farms, thousand roubles describes the role of farms in livestock production 3. Number of profitable livestock organisations in the district on average over three years, units.characterises the potential profitability of livestock activity in the area under the influence of the whole range of socio-economic factors 4. Area under forage crops, hectares describes the potential for forage production 5. Average growth rate of cattle population over three years, in fractions of a unit characterises the attractiveness of the area for cattle breeding and the business activity in the industry

Table 1 .
System of indicators for ranking rural municipalities in terms of organic agricultural development potential

Table 2 .
Results of the ranking of rural municipalities in terms of organic agricultural development potential