Klassifizierung russischer Regionen unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Agrar- und Ernährungswirtschaft

Abstract

This article addresses regional features of the food sector in Russia's subnational territories. The diverse geographic and climatic characteristics as well as policy measures during the socialist era have resulted in specialised patterns of agricultural production. Under central planning regional demand and supply of food products was balanced by public intervention. With the beginning of the transition period the federal Russian government lost power and lacked financial means to continue this balancing mechanism. The regionalisation of policy-making increased the sovereignty of the subnational units in Russia. Today many of the regions pursue strategies of autarky and self-sufficiency and have implemented corresponding agricultural and food policies. Against the background, the evolving patterns of the food economy in Russia's regions are analysed quantitatively. We use a set of socio-economic indicators as well as food supply and demand variables to identify regional classes. Cluster analysis and discriminant analysis are applied to test the significance of the chosen variables for the group composition. The resulting classification focuses on relationships between agricultural sector performance and the welfare situation of households. It highlights that policy increasingly matters for regional diversity: first, different agricultural and food policies at the oblast level change the relative position of the regions in terms of food sector performance; second, the administrative status of a region (oblast versus autonomous region or republic) has an impact on the performance of the food sector in the region. We conclude, that the transition period has increased the disintegration of food markets and therefore the regional heterogeneity of the food sector in Russia.