AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION AND ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION: finding a balance

Abstract

The Ukrainian agro-industrial complex takes one of the leading positions in terms of waste generation. The constant increase in the agro-industrial production demonstrates the need for serious attention to the development of methods for collecting, processing and removal of agricultural waste with minimal environmental pollution. The main purpose of the paper is to highlight the relationship between the problems of agro-industrial waste management and preservation of the environment through the prism of the national and global vision.

It was substantiated that the efficiency of agro-industrial production and the state of the environment are inevitably interconnected and are often diametrically opposed. There are no effective political, economic, legal and social instruments in Ukraine that allowed to resolve the critical situation with the formation, accumulation, storage, processing, recycling and disposal of waste of the agro-industrial complex. The difference between the current situation of waste management in Ukraine compared to other developed countries is the large volumes of waste and the lack of infrastructure for handling them. The experience of the USA and Western Europe shows that the use of agricultural waste has become an inexhaustible source of raw materials. In Germany, Japan, Sweden, South Korea, Switzerland, the United States, Denmark, the Netherlands, China, state plans for the creation and development of a closed-loop economy based on recycling of resources have been developed, adopted and implemented. A circular economy model casts doubt on the outlook that opposes the economy to the environment and suggests that economic growth can take place in the interests of the environment and not at its expense.

It is proved that the balance between agro-industrial production and the state of the environment will provide a sufficient quantity of agricultural products, an acceptable income for producers of such products and an optimal environment for the population.