AGRO-INDUSTRIAL CLUSTER: SUPPORTING THE FOOD SECURITY OF THE DEVELOPING MARKET ECONOMY

The article examines the mechanism for the creation and implementation of an agro-industrial cluster in the form of a rural municipal formation, which is an average population center, whose inhabitants are engaged in agriculture and ensure the functioning of its social infrastructure. At the same time, the said cluster is a combination of a system of production, primary processing, storage and marketing of agricultural products and a system of social infrastructure that ensures the quality of life of its residents, comparable to the urban one. Within the framework of practical research, several measures for the integrated development of rural areas are proposed, taking into account the assessment of the level of social and economic development of agriculture in the territories of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and public policy instruments that influence their development. The assessment of the agriculture development was carried out using the methods of descriptive statistics based on the Gatev coefficient, and also by conducting a cluster analysis based on the application of the package of applied programs "Statistica". These allowed to formulate and propose a concept for rural settlements of a new type that correspond to the current trends in the territorial development of the developing market economy that meet the requirements for ensuring the state's food security. At the same time, mechanisms proposed are aimed at the integrated development of rural settlements, and in particular, include the involvement of additional budgetary funds and adjusting the tax policy for agricultural producers.