RESEARCH ON THE DEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL OF UKRAINE'S AGRICULTURAL SECTOR BASED ON CLUSTERING PRINCIPLES

The article analyzes Ukraine's agricultural sector's state and development prospects under war and global challenges. The study analyzes statistical data, highlighting the agricultural sector's significant contribution to Ukraine's economy, notably 9% of GDP and 53% of exports, including the processing industry. The research substantiates the strategic importance of the agricultural sector for ensuring the country's food security and strengthening its export potential. It is argued that clustering enables the consolidation of efforts of various agricultural sector participants—enterprises, research institutions, educational institutions, and local authorities—for joint work on innovative solutions, improving technological processes, and enhancing product quality. An analysis of foreign experience in cluster implementation shows that clusters contribute to forming sustainable value chains, increased investment attractiveness, and efficient resource utilization. Implementing the cluster approach in Ukraine's agricultural sector could become essential in regional development, strengthening the country's export capabilities and increasing its economic resilience. A list of negative factors affecting the formation and development of agricultural clusters has been compiled Using a systemic approach, covering criteria that highlight critical problems: strategic, institutional, financial-economic, production, marketing, and social. It is substantiated that timely identification and systematization of problematic issues in the creation and development of agricultural clusters make it possible to prepare the groundwork in advance for overcoming them and ensuring progressive development of the agricultural sector at both regional and national levels, as some of these problems have a national character. A system of measures to overcome the negative factors of forming and developing cluster structures in the agricultural sector has been developed. This system includes improving state agro-food policy in specific areas, enhancing the organizational-economic and financial-economic mechanisms of agribusiness, overcoming the accumulation of competitive potential in the regional agricultural sector, stimulating the export of agricultural and food products, activating innovative development of the agricultural and processing sectors, as well as providing information support and monitoring related to the use of specific measures and information technologies.