ORGANIZATIONAL AND INSTITUTIONAL SUBSTITUTION OF THE FORMATION OF INNOVATIVE AND INCLUSIVE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION CLUSTERS

Abstract

The article substantiates the theoretical, organizational, and institutional foundations for forming innovation-inclusive agricultural production clusters to ensure food security in Ukraine amidst socio-economic transformation, military challenges, and post-war recovery. The cluster approach is revealed as a modern model of spatial agricultural organization, ensuring the efficient use of territorial resource potential, cooperation development, innovation diffusion, and sustainable local value chains.
The study examines regional disparities in Ukraine’s agricultural sector regarding land, labor, financial, and infrastructural resources, alongside digitalization, innovation, and logistics capacity. It establishes that increasing spatial unevenness of production, migration processes, war-induced infrastructure destruction, and the insufficient technological development of small and medium-sized farms negatively affect the national food system’s resilience.
An innovation-inclusive agricultural production cluster is defined as an integrated organizational and economic system connecting agricultural producers, research and educational institutions, financial organizations, public authorities, territorial communities, and infrastructure entities. Its key structural components include production, research and innovation, infrastructure and logistics, financial and investment, management and coordination, and social inclusion blocks.
Implementing this cluster model increases agricultural production efficiency, develops local processing industries, expands small producers’ access to finance, technologies, and markets, and fosters a circular economy. This strengthens regional food self-sufficiency and enhances the resilience of Ukraine’s food system to external risks. Conceptual directions for developing innovation-inclusive clusters are proposed as an important tool for sector modernization and sustainable rural development.