PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF USING AGRICULTURAL LANDS OF PEASANT FARMS IN UKRAINE

Abstract

Introduction. History shows that despite constant attempts to change fundamentally land relations (from the landlord to the sole land ownership and the isolated farmstead system, from dekulakization to the socialization of land, from total collectivization to the consolidation of agricultural land in latifundia), it was impossible to destroy the striving of peasants and the majority of the urban population for family land ownership and agriculture by operating an individual household, home gardens, vegetable gardens, country gardens, and other forms of peasant farms. Purpose of the article is to analyze the state and development prospects of peasant farms, productivity of the use of their agricultural lands and to provide suggestions on basic ways how to increase the volume of the of agricultural production by this organizational form of management. Methods. The theoretical and methodological basis for research is general scientific and special methods of learning economic phenomena and processes, namely the dialectical method of scientific knowledge, mathematical statistics (grouping, comparative analysis), the index factor analysis and balance method. Results show that in the post-reform period of agricultural development pace of peasant farms development is significantly behind the pace of agricultural enterprises development. Factor analysis of productivity growth in crop production as a basic branch of agriculture showed that advance increase in gross crop production at the agricultural enterprises was provided by a sharp increase in productivity (increase is 230.1%) due to increasing crop capacity, and the structure improvement of using farmland (+ 22.0%) due to the deepening of specialization of high-yield crops cultivation and development of integration processes, while reducing the area of farmland (-39.7%). At the same time, if compared with 1999 the growth of gross crop production at peasant farms reached 39.0967 million UAH., or 118.2% mainly due to slow productivity growth (by 157.6%) and expanding areas of farmland (by 105.9%) while the structure of their use is worsening (-58.9). Therefore, in order to increase agricultural production and thus income of household members of the population, we need to take measures in their peasant farms to increase crop capacity, deepening production specialization and the development of common with other economic entities production and sales activities. Discussion. The obtained research results can be used in practical activity of peasant farms, in defining and substantiating trends and ways of agriculture development by scientists and experts, representatives of public authorities, local governments, teachers and graduate, students of higher educational institutions, landowners and land users.