Increasing labor productivity as the major line of agricultural industry development

Ulyanovsk State Agrarian University named after P.A. Stolypin, 432017 Ulyanovsk, Russia

^* Corresponding author: ya.cmirnov2012@yandex.ru

Abstract

The improvement of the agricultural sector efficiency, a shift to innovative development approaches to increase the competitiveness of domestic agriculture in modern conditions is possible only if labor productivity increases. This task is more relevant today than ever, since the main factor of production – labor (labor resources) has a steady downward trend. The study has shown that in the agricultural sector of the region there is an increase of labor productivity both by value and volume. The application of deterministic factor analysis has revealed that in the dynamics both factors (number of employees and cost of production) had a positive impact on increasing labor productivity, but the increase in production volumes in the industry had a more noticeable effect (the value of the factor varied from 57.7 to 69.7 %). However due regard must be paid to the fact that agricultural production is subject to fluctuations and the decrease in the number of workers in the industry is sustainable. The positive impact and the main factor in the growth of annual labor productivity is an increase in the average hourly output of workers due to an increase in the yield and technical re-equipment, and this should be noted as a strategically important direction for the development of the industry. The normalization of employment also acts as a factor in further increasing labor productivity.