The paper proposes an original approach to determining the optimal allocation of agricultural production in the region; the approach includes the methodological substantiation of the necessity to differentiate consumers when addressing food security issues in the region. It was proposed to allocate three levels: level 1 – the provision of food to socially vulnerable layers, level 2 – the provision with food at the subsistence level, and level 3 – the provision of the total population of the region with food. A preliminary forecast was made for each municipality; it analyzed possible changes in the number of the socially vulnerable up to 2020; in accordance with medical standards and norms of the subsistence level the volumes of food were calculated, which in turn were compared with the actual production output. The difference between the actual volume and the volume of evidence-based requirements represented the very increase in the volume of production, the achievement of which requires certain investments on the basis of capital-output ratio. After that the regional market was divided into three sub-regional markets depending on distance, number of consumers and suppliers. This allowed us to calculate the amount of transport costs based on the type and lot size of the transported product, taking into account the distance to each sub-market. As a criterion of transportation expediency we took into account the share of transport costs in the price of the product not exceeding 30%. Otherwise, it is required to concentrate the production in order to increase the lot transported or to carry out a deeper processing of the product. The proposed methodology served as the basis for choosing the most effective option of spatial location of agricultural production
Keywords
rural development, food security, agriculture, far north, ecological production, production
efficiency, agricultural policy, optimal allocation, regional market