Rural areas’ factors of sustainable socio - economic development: estimates of agricultural producers

. The article presents the results of an expert survey of managers, chief specialists and heads of structural divisions of agricultural enterprises of Stavropol Krai (Russia). We carried out a factor analysis of the expert assessment of socio-economic contradictions negatively affecting the development of rural areas in the South of Russia. The opinions of the expert community represented by agricultural producers are important, since agricultural enterprises are the backbone economic units of rural settlements. A brief analysis of the publications of the science-intensive Scopus database confirms the relevance of the research topic and allows us to formulate a theoretical model of the problem field affecting the sustainable socio-economic development of rural areas. In the empirical part of the study, a survey was conducted of 205 experts – representatives of agricultural enterprises of Stavropol Krai, holding the positions of managers, chief specialists, and heads of structural divisions. The obtained research results provide an information and analytical basis for the development and improvement of programs for the strategic development of rural areas of Stavropol Krai. The methodology for studying the factors of sustainable socio-economic improvement of rural areas based on the assessment of agricultural producers can be used to analyze the territorial development of rural regions of Russia.


Introduction
Sustainable socio-economic development of territories is an important task of the modern agenda of the Russian village.In the Strategy for Sustainable Development of Rural Territories of the Russian Federation until 2030, adopted in 2015, sustainable development is understood as stable socio-economic development of rural territories, increasing agricultural production, increasing agricultural efficiency, achieving full employment of rural population and improving their standard of living, rational use of land.
Official statistical information on indicators characterizing the development of rural areas is formed by Rosstat (Federal State Statistics Service) on the basis of statistical and administrative data provided by municipal administrations in the form of federal statistical observation.But this information is not enough to fully understand the situation and predict territorial socio-economic development.
Based on the definition in the official document that defines the key relevant areas for the development of our research strategy, the importance of agricultural production and rural labour resources is obvious.Therefore, the opinions of specialists and managers of agricultural enterprises play an important role in understanding the factors of sustainable socio-economic development of rural areas.The analysis of the value judgments of this category of experts from among the professional community -agricultural producers is the purpose of our study.
The study of the factors of sustainable socio-economic development is an urgent research issue not only for the Russian reality, but also for other regions of the world, as evidenced by a brief analysis of the publications of the science-intensive Scopus database.
New information technologies and the associated e-commerce opportunities make it possible to actively change the economic situation in rural areas.The authors of the article Y. Zang, Sh.Hu, B. Zhou, L. Lv, X. Sui, using the example of rural provinces of China, show positive practices of economic growth and sustainable development through the introduction of e-commerce [1].The researchers conclude that with the necessary government support, an electronic ecosystem is emerging and developing in rural communities, which provides a constant income for agricultural producers and makes their lives more stable.Thus, for the sustainable development of rural areas, the entrepreneurial qualities of farmers, the active participation of the local population and government support for digital innovations in rural areas are important.In addition, the authors emphasize that the successful implementation of these digital projects requires a policy of nurturing the rural elite -educated, advanced digital users, agents of innovation [2].This approach is also applicable for the sustainable development of rural areas in Russia.
The development of renewable energy sources is important for the implementation of projects in rural areas and increasing the sustainability of the rural economy.The authors of the article, considering the work of micro-hydroelectric power plants, explain the advantages for facilitating the lives of rural women, who, according to the results of a large number of gender studies of migration processes, urbanization, play a key role in making a decision to move a family to a new place of residence [3].Thus, by improving the living conditions and facilitating the domestic work of women, we have a positive impact on the demographic situation and the labour resources of the village.In turn, this becomes an important factor in increasing the socio-economic sustainability of rural areas.In the theoretical model of our study of socio-economic sustainability of rural regions, it is necessary to pay attention to the role of women in significant processes of sustainable development.
The authors of the other study, relying on the concept of sustainable development, come to the conclusion that sustainable consumption can have a greater economic effect compared to sustainable production and plays a crucial role in the development of agriculture and rural economy [4].Among the problems of the region of the south of Russia, the issue of household waste disposal, ecology of coastal territories, rational use and processing of agricultural products and others is quite acute.Thus, it confirmed the relevance of the conclusions on optimizing the consumption process in rural areas and the significance of these conclusions for the theoretical model of our study.
Calculating the index of sustainable rural development, the group of authors showed that the development of various forms of rural tourism will positively affect the strengthening of the socio-economic position of this territory [5].Conclusions supported by objective calculations help to comprehensively approach the tasks of sustainable development of rural municipalities [6].
For the sustainable development of rural areas, an important factor is the positive positioning of life in rural areas and work in the agricultural sector of production.In this regard M. Escribano, P. Gaspar, F.J. Mesias propose to develop umbrella brands that will increase the recognition of a set of supporting, regulatory and cultural ecosystem services [7].
The article by researchers E. Gorbenkova, E. Shcherbina, A. Belal presents the author's theoretical approaches to modelling sustainable development and classification of drivers of rural settlements development.The multilevel and multi-criteria approach allows taking into account the influence of various factors on the degree of sustainability of socio-economic development of rural areas [8].The implementation of this approach has a certain analogy in our study.
In addition to the listed significant and relevant factors of sustainable socio-economic development of rural areas, modern researches indicate such spheres of influence as the provision of comfortable housing [9], the promotion of economic innovations [10], the impact on the environmental situation [11,12], attention to the employment of rural residents [13], the development of rural infrastructure [14], strategic planning [15].

Materials and methods
In the empirical part of the study, a survey was conducted of 205 experts -representatives of agricultural enterprises of Stavropol Krai, holding the positions of managers, chief specialists, heads of structural divisions.The participants of the expert survey could put any value from 1 point to 5 points, depending on their opinion about the significance of a particular problem for their territory of residence and work.The data were processed using the statistical program SPSS Statistics (version 23).We carried out a factor analysis of the expert assessment of socio-economic contradictions negatively affecting the development of rural areas in the South of Russia.We carried out the interpretation of each structural component of the factor model and developed the directions of sustainable development of rural territories of Stavropol Krai.

Results and discussion
We focused on the results of the survey of 205 experts -representatives of agricultural enterprises of Stavropol Krai, holding the positions of managers, chief specialists, heads of structural divisions.They assess the significance of the problems of rural areas on an interval five-point scale, which determines the basis for the development of a structural model of sustainable socio-economic development of rural areas.
The use of statistical factor analysis procedures to develop a structural model of significant conditions for sustainable socio-economic development of rural areas makes it possible to determine the full explained variance.According to the results of statistical processing of the expert survey database in the SPSS Statistics program (version 23), the total explained variance was 86.651% and was determined by 8 components.The data is presented in table 1 of pensions, allowances and scholarships (0.901); difference in the quality of life in the city and village (0.754); low wages (0.676); lack of funds for the creation and development of their own business (0.511); the spread of drunkenness, drug addiction (0.476).2nd structural component Discharge of polluted wastewater into reservoirs (0.864); spontaneous development of suburban and rural areas (0.819); difficult environmental situation and unsatisfactory environmental condition (0.734); offroad and poor provision of public transport (0.666); lack of places in kindergartens (0.665); insufficient provision of standard quality drinking water, water supply, sewerage (0.605); food losses during consumption (0.565).
The strategic direction of development is the creation of profitable enterprises and the support of small businesses through the leadership work of authorities in rural settlements.
Reduced environmental control over the situation in rural areas by the authorities, poor transport infrastructure that worsens the living conditions of citizens in rural areas.4th structural component Heavy physical labour in agricultural production, irregular working hours (0.851); malnutrition (0.721); reduction in food quality and safety (0.709).
The strategic direction is the development of tools for environmental control by civil society, support for civil initiatives in infrastructure projects in rural areas affecting communal facilities, the road transport system.5th structural component Lack or poor quality of mobile communications, Internet (0.880); unavailability of higher and secondary vocational education (0.782); lack or limited opportunities to improve housing conditions (0.527); the situation in the field of school education (-0.473).Compiled by the authors Thus, the mathematical procedures of factor analysis performed by the method of selecting the main components distributed the 30 listed problems of socio-economic development of rural areas, evaluated by experts, into 8 structural components of the actual model.The full explained variance was 86.651%: 1.Low financial security and quality of people's life in rural areas (significance coefficient 16.316%).2. Reduced environmental control over the situation in rural areas by the authorities, poor transport infrastructure that worsens the living of citizens in rural areas (significance coefficient 15.512%).

Lack of confidence in
3. Uncertainty about the reliability of support and protection of an ordinary citizen in case of illness, epidemic, illegal actions regarding the individual (significance coefficient 12.101%).4. Reduced opportunities to engage in personal subsidiary farming due to heavy seasonal rural labour, replacement of organic food with less useful (containing additives, flavour enhancers, substitutes, etc.) non-compensating physical labour costs in agricultural production (significance coefficient 10.992%). 5.A significant difference in the possibilities of obtaining high-quality higher education and improving housing conditions, problems of accessibility of digital services due to the quality of the Internet (significance coefficient 10.273%).6. Lack of interest of local authorities in the development of household and services for the population (significance coefficient 8.463%).7. Restriction of the rights of rural women (significance coefficient 6.742%).8. Trade is flourishing, but real production is not developing (significance coefficient 6.254%).

Conclusion
The conducted research shows a mathematically sound structural model and the possibility to develop directions for the development of rural areas based on it, taking into account the opinions of the expert community represented by agricultural producers.
-strategic direction of development 1 -creation of profitable enterprises and support of small businesses through the leadership work of authorities in rural settlements; -strategic direction 2 -development of instruments of environmental control by civil society, support of civil initiative in infrastructure projects of rural areas affecting communal facilities, road transport system; -strategic direction 3 -along with the support of healthcare infrastructure, law enforcement agencies, expand the availability of information about medical care and communication with support agents in difficult life circumstances; -strategic direction 4 -search for new approaches in the organization and remuneration of labour, promising organizational forms of support for personal subsidiary farms of rural residents, development of rural cooperation; -strategic direction 5 -development of technical capabilities for access to high-quality Internet and mobile communications; -strategic direction 6 -to increase the responsibility of local authorities for the integrated development of settlements, taking into account the interests and requests of citizens; -strategic direction 7 -development of support programs and targeted assistance to women in rural areas; -strategic direction 8 -in rural settlements development programs, pay special attention to the development and support of the real sector of the economy.
The conclusions made in the empirical part do not contradict the content of the theoretical analysis of the publications of the science-intensive Scopus database and confirm the relevance of the study.

Table 1 .
. Full explained variance of the expert assessment The listed 30 components in the theoretical model were evaluated by the participants of the expert survey on a five-point scale.As a result of factor analysis performed by Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization (Rotation converged in 17 iterations), the indicators were grouped into 8 structural components.

Table 2 .
Rotated component matrixThe interpretations of the structural elements of the socio-economic development model of rural areas in the assessment of agricultural producers are presented in the table 3.

Table 3 .
Interpretation of structural elements of the socio-economic development model of rural areas in the assessment of agricultural producers