Structural changes in the rural economy

The relevance of the topic is due to the need to study features of the rural economic development in the current social and economic environment. The aim of the article is to develop recommendations for improving the efficiency of rural business by analyzing the current situation and identifying features of development of agricultural businesses. The article describes results of an analysis of characteristics of the development of sectors of the rural economy over the past seven years. It has been established that the annual growth rates of the economy of the Republic of Tatarstan in general and the agricultural sector, in particular, are decreasing. In the next five years, they may amount to only 1–1.5 %; in 2014–2016, GRP of the agricultural sector amounted to 11–12 %, in 2017–2019 – 10 %. According to the existing trend, its share may decline to 8–9 %; 50 % of the production volume are produced by small businesses, which have a strong influence on volume indicators and are characterized by growth instability depending on demand and price fluctuations in the market. It is necessary to create conditions for the stable functioning of large agricultural producers, take measures to create a system of agricultural consumer cooperatives and diversify the rural economy in order to achieve stable development of rural territories.