Implementation of local food concept for social-economic revitalization in rural areas: the case of Ukraine

Objectives: The article is aimed at studying the features of implementation of local food concept as a way to ensure social-economic revitalization and sustainable development of both the agrisector and rural areas in Ukraine.
Methods/Analysis: The research is based on the analysis of available statistics on agriculture enterprises development, social and demographic, as well as agricultural activity characteristics of households in Ukraine. It also generalizes the scientific views on the essence and implementation approaches for local food concept (LFC) as an alternative mode of agriculture development.

Findings: The existing model of agriculture in Ukraine negatively affects social and environmental aspects of rural territories development. It leads rather to the impoverishment of the rural population, further degradation and the extinction of rural areas. There were summarized the scientific approaches concerning LFC as alternative model of agriculture development, that, in turn, determine the peculiarities of its implementation. The local food concept presupposes the development of short and local food supply systems. Its implementation is based on the agricultural production of end-use products and their distribution via direct producer-consumer contacts. In this regard, the features of agriculture organization for different types of producers were studied and the main LFC players were identified. There were examined the features of households’ agricultural activity in Ukraine.

Novelty/Improvements: There were defined the main obstacles for LFC implementation in Ukraine, as well as prior areas of agriculture and rural policy regulation aimed at ensuring the social-economic rural revitalization in the sustainable development context.
Keywords: local food concept, peasant households, sustainable rural development, industrial agriculture, agricultural policy, rural policy.