ASSESSMENT OF THE POTENTIAL FOR AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION CLUSTERING IN THE VOLGA-KAMA MACROREGION

The authors identify key indicators for assessing agricultural production potential, which are then used to analyze the territories of municipalities in six regions of Russia, including the Republics of Mari El, Mordovia, Tatarstan, and Chuvashia, as well as Kirov and Nizhny Novgorod region. For the Volga-Kama macroregion, they examine the dynamics of agricultural, forestry, and fisheries organizations. The authors conclude that it is feasible and beneficial to establish cluster-type, multi-industry entities in Russian regions, such as agro-industrial multiclusters, which integrate enterprises and organizations involved in activities such as animal husbandry, crop production, fishing, fish farming, and forestry. Various spatial models for agricultural production clustering have been identified for the regions in question. The potential multicluster for agriculture, forestry, and fisheries in the Republic of Tatarstan has a dual-core spatial structure, with Kazan and Naberezhnye Chelny acting as the scientific, educational, infrastructural, and production cores of the multicluster. In other regions under consideration, the proposed multicluster model features one main core. The study found that there are potential centers for agricultural sector clustering in the Nizhny Novgorod region (four centers), Kirov region (five centers), and the Republic of Mari El (two centers). The spatial structure of agriculture in the Republics of Mordovia and Chuvashia is characterized by a single pronounced clustering center, the multicluster core. In addition, the authors identify a number of other agricultural clusterization centers as points of interregional clustering within the Volga-Kama macroregion.