Current development aspects in Ukraine’s animal breeding with the consideration of the impact of agrarian crises

Abstract

Aim. To determine the consequences of the cyclic development in the agrarian sector and evaluate the shifts in the structure and the performance of the animal breeding branch due to the occurrence and course of the agrarian crises and inter-crisis periods, to substantiate the measures and practical actions for its restoration. Methods. Common scientifi c methods were applied, including historical and logical, dialectic and systemic analysis, theoretical generalization, analysis and synthesis, variation dynamics, comparison, grouping, indexing, and table methods. Results. The cyclic nature of the development in the agrarian sector was investigated; it was found that agrarian crises, starting with 1990 to 1999 which lasted 10 years, from 2000 to 2010 – 10 years, from 2011 to 2015 – 5 years, from 2016 to 2020 – 5 years, were the consequences of this process and their trough was a starting point to launch a new cycle. It was determined that the transition to new forms of economic activity was accompanied by the destruction of the material foundation of animal breeding, the arable areas under forage crops were reduced, the scientifi c requirements towards crop rotations were not followed, yet the transformational processes promoted the organization of animal farms of different organizational and legal forms. It was analytically proven that there was no restoration of animal breeding after the transformational crisis: the highest indices were registered in 2013 – 56.1 % from the level of the animal breeding production index in the basic year as compared to the lowest value of this indicator of 43.3 % in 2000. It was demonstrated that practically all the effective indices of animal breeding production tended to decrease, except the following ones: poultry meat production, the production volumes of which increased twice; the production of honey was increased by one-third; the performance of cows increased by 1.8 times. The russian aggression has induced the exacerbation of the crisis phenomena in the animal breeding industry, which will cause the manifestation of catastrophic risks in some sub-branches, like meat and milk animal breeding. We suggested the main directions of strategic post-war restoration of animal breeding restoration based on the intensive methods of enlarging the livestock of farm animals, modernization of industrial potential of animal breeding complexes, expansion of forage crop areas, recovery of the natural forage foundation, and increasing the capacities of producing concentrated fodder, the introduction of resource-saving and ecology-oriented technologies, digital instruments with the adherence to stable development principles and innovational provisions. Conclusions. It was determined that the livestock of most sub-branches of the animal breeding industry was not restored after the trough of the transformational crisis, and the indices of the pre-crisis state were not reached, except in poultry breeding. The descending trends, initiated in the transformational period, reached such dynamics that they still go on in some main branches of animal breeding. The exception was found in poultry meat production, in which the count of birds decreased down to 82.2 % from the basic year, but the 2.36-fold gain in live weight was ensured, which promoted the approximately two-fold increase in the production volumes. It was found that the descending trend of milk production is permanent, and as of the end of the investigated period, only one-third of the 1990 index was produced in Ukraine (34.2 %). It was caused by the fact that the number of cows decreased more than fi ve times during the investigated period, yet the index value of the annual yield of milk per one cow changed to the ascending trend, and at the end of the investigated period, the yield of milk increased 1.8 times – up to 5,155 liters. It was proven that in the years of crises, there was a decrease in the number of small and large agrarian milk-producing enterprises and an increase in the group of extralarge ones. No clear manifestation of regularities in the cyclic development was registered by the main indices of animal breeding because after slight rises, this branch remained on a low level, and since the peak of the agrarian crisis has had descending dynamics. It was substantiated that the main factors of shorter time periods in the crisis manifestation in animal breeding are as follows: global climate change, stronger initiatives on the introduction of climatically neutral technologies of production, adherence to ecological requirements and standards, development of different organizational forms of conveying the novel elaborations to agrarian producers and their scientifi c and consultative support, active state support, etc.