Regional Uneven Development of Agriculture in the World Economy at the Beginning of the XXI Century

The paper is devoted to one of the most acute problems in the world economy - regional uneven development of agriculture. The author determined the system of indicators that describe the uneven distribution of agricultural production between different regions of the world, studied the factors of efficiency of agricultural production - labor productivity, land productivity, capital productivity (capital return). The article demonstrates further consolidation of the trend of the second half of the XX century that manifested in the redistribution of agricultural production from North America and Europe to Asia, Africa, and Australia. The GDP created in agriculture in Asia already exceeded other regions of the world in 2000, and by 2017 the gap was even wider. Africa, having surpassed Europe in this indicator, ranked second in the world. The unevenness of economic growth in world agriculture manifested itself in the disproportions between the factors of efficiency of agricultural production - labor productivity and land productivity. Labor productivity was lowest in Asia and Africa, and the highest in Australia. Land productivity was characterized by diametrically opposite dynamics: the highest values were achieved in Asia, and the lowest - in Australia. The paper explains the disparity between labor productivity and land productivity by various technological modes of production (TMP) that have historically developed in agriculture in the East and West: land-saving TMP - in the East, and labor-saving TMP - in the West. The influence of informal institutions operating in traditional rural societies on the uneven development of agriculture is also studied. The disproportions in the development of the livestock sector of agricultural production, affecting the regional uneven development of the agricultural economy, are considered. The main forms and methods of organization of the livestock sector - from high-intensity to traditional - are analyzed. Special attention is paid to nomadic cattle breeding, which is currently preserved in various forms in 50 countries of the world. It is considered as a special nomad production mode. The article concludes that there is a need for a multipronged approach to conducting an international comparative analysis of capital productivity (index of capital return) in the agricultural sector of the economy that takes into account capital-labor ration a large-scale increase in labor productivity - a strategically important factor of economic growth in any country in the world.

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