THE PROBLEM OF EMPLOYMENT IN AGRICULTURE OF KEMEROVO REGION

Баранова А.С.

Nowadays the problem of employment in agriculture is very important. Recently the dynamics of the reduction of rural population in Kuzbass has been observed. For example, during 2006 - 2009 years the rural population decreased from 426.8 thousand people to 424.9 thousand.

This tendency is observed because of several reasons. Lack of work, seasonal prevalence of agricultural work, inadequate level of wages for hard working conditions, lack of prestige of agriculture, well as overall life in the village, lack of prospects. So, this in turn, leads to the problem that young people leave villages, and move to towns.

The reduction of the rural population is connected with low social and living conditions of rural life (lack of central heating, uncomfortable houses, etc.). Also in the village cultural sphere is poorly developed. There are no cinemas, sport complexes. There is a problem of poor quality of health services. Schools are closed. It has been a strong reduction of teachers. Another problem of villages is poor quality of roads. It is a problem to get from village to town.

As for the age of the rural population, we can speak about the predominance of older age groups (40 - 49 years and older). Over the past years there has been "aging" of the rural population (Table 1).
Table 1 – Distribution of rural population by age group in 2007 - 2009 years, number of persons

Age group	Years			Changes 2009/2007
	2007	2008	2009	+/-	%
0 - 9	46 295	47 722	49 790	3 495	107,55
10 – 19	61 438	56 894	52 965	-8 473	86,21
20 – 29	68 195	70 779	72 533	4 338	106,36
30 – 39	51 728	53 069	54 127	2 399	104,64
40 – 49	66 346	63 145	59 852	-6 494	90,21
50 – 59	61 000	63 566	65 755	4 755	107,80
60 – 69	32 199	32 013	30 351	-1 848	94,26
70 and older	37 870	38 776	39 557	1 687	104,45

Traditionally agriculture is the main activity of the rural population. This industry employs the majority of villagers.

The number of workers employed in agriculture is characterized by the following data (Table 2) [4].

Table 2 – Number of workers employed in the economy of the Kemerovo region, th. people

As for the wages, there is a tendency of growth (Table 3):

Let’s consider the distribution of employed in agricultural production by level of education (Table 4). [2]

Table 4 – The distribution of employed in agriculture by level of education, thousands of people

To visualize the data on the distribution of employed by education in 2008 let s make a diagram (Fig. 2).

Based on the data presented in diagram 2, we make the following conclusions: the majority (29%) employed in agriculture have secondary education, a significant number of people have the basic, general education (22%), middle professional education (21%) and primary education (20%). Share of specialists with high education is only 7%. This indicates not high qualification of employed in agriculture. As you can see 1% has only primary education or doesn’t even have it. But in general, analyzing the structure we can conclude that the qualification level of employed in agricultural production has increased.

Analyzing the problems of the village we can notice quite a paradox: on the one hand there is unemployment, but on the other hand there is no wish to get the vacant, often low-wages jobs.

Another problem is the low wages of agricultural workers. Let’s consider the data on wages in agriculture. (Table 5)

the average wages for all sectors of the economy

From the submitted data in table 7, we see that the wage from 2004 to 2008 increased. The pace of wage growth in agriculture is higher than in other industries. But in spite of this in 2008 the wages in agriculture only reached the level of wages which was in economic sectors in 2005.

Let’s consider the structure and dynamics of investments in different sectors of economy of the Kemerovo region in 2007-2009. (Table 6):

Table 6 – Financial investments by economic activities, rubles.

Based on the data presented in table 9, we can conclude that the proportion of investments in agriculture is less than 0,02% of total investments in all economic activities. This indicates a low investment attractiveness of agriculture compared with other sectors of the economy.

In agricultural production there is a problem of shortage and obsolescence of material and technical resources. Most farms use old, weared, low-technological machines.

Let’s consider investments of agriculture from the regional budget of the Kemerovo region. (Table 7) [7].

Table 7 – Financing of the agricultural producers from the regional budget

From the presented data in table 10 we see that the regional budget has allocated substantial sums to develop agriculture, but there is a decrease in funding. Based on the analysis we can conclude that to increase the motivation of villagers to agricultural activities it is necessary to solve several problems. First of all, in our opinion, it is necessary to increase the profitability of agricultural production. We also need to create a reasonable balance between grain growing and animal husbandry branches. It is necessary to update the material and technical base of agriculture because the work of older machines and equipment is more expensive. Such machines are less productive and require their permanent repairs. Another important problem is to attract people including young people and professionals. So it is necessary to solve many social, cultural and everyday problems. Life in city is more comfortable than in the village. This is expressed in many ways: comfortable apartments, a wider range of opportunities for leisure activities (cinemas, theaters, museums, sports complexes, restaurants, etc.), more advanced services, greater opportunities to select areas of activity with higher wages, greater range of opportunities for development and education of children, skilled medical services, etc.

To attract people to the village, in our opinion, it is necessary to make rural lifestyle closer to the urban ones, even during off-hours.

Literature:

1. Kovalenko E.F. Agricultural economics: a textbook for high schools / N.Y. Kovalenko, V.S. Sorokin, etc. – M. : Kolos, 2008. – 208 p.

2. Investments in the regional economy (2007 - 2009 years.): statistical bulletin.

3. Work and employment in the Kemerovo region (2004 - 2008 years): statistical yearbook.

4. Population of the Kemerovo region by sex and age (2007 - 2009 years): statistical bulletin.

5. Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation: [site] http://www.mcx.ru/

6. Kemerovostat: [site] http://www.kemerovostat.ru/

7. Administration of the Kemerovo region: [site] http://www.ako.ru /

Scientiffic leader - assistant Belyakova U.U.

УДК 37.014