Abstract. The existing subsidy payments actually leads to overpricing of resources by suppliers and, as a consequence, to reduction of economic availability for all other agricultural producers, who don’t receive support measures. A limited number of economic entities receive short-term financial benefits from subsidies, which don’t refer to the whole agricultural sector. The purpose is to propose and substantiate recommendations for increasing the economic return on agricultural subsidies in Kazakhstan. Methods. The paper applies a statistical analysis of economic return on agricultural subsidies in Kazakhstan. The work estimates volumes of used resources and produced goods per 1 ruble of subsidies (considering their types). Scientific novelty consists in clarifying approaches to the assessment of economic efficiency of agricultural subsidies; determining the factors restraining the agricultural development in Kazakhstan at the expense of subsidies; proposing and justification of measures to mitigate these factors. Results. The focus of support on short-term results (replenishment of working capital instead of introducing new technologies); the orientation of support on gross indicators instead of production efficiency; insufficient funding for general services in the agricultural sector – are factors that hinder the growth of the returns from subsidies. The article proposes the improvement measures: 1) linking subsidies with production efficiency, application of innovative and environmentally friendly technologies; 2) re-orientation of subsidies in favor of domestic production of resources for agriculture; 3) financing of domestic breeding science, seed production. These measures are based on the need to overcome the technological backwardness of agriculture in Kazakhstan.

The study attempts to explain the dependence of agricultural development indicators on subsidies and other factors in Russia in 2012–2020. Based on the author's methodology, the survey evaluates the economic efficiency of subsidies in Russia’s agriculture, develops and justifies the measures to improve the support system aimed at increasing total factor productivity (TFP). The object of the study is agricultural subsidy system. The subject of the research is the influence of subsidies on TFP in agriculture. The panel models with fixed effects do not reveal an impact of subsidies on TFP. The 1st lag of the logarithm of subsidies negatively affects the dynamics of labor productivity, and shows no relationship between current year subsidies and labor productivity. Labor productivity in agriculture in Russia grows in 2019– 2020 as a result of higher gross output and, to a lesser extent, of lower employment. Capital productivity increases mainly due to gross output growth. Support measures for general services (development of infrastructure, science, extension, phytosanitary and veterinary services) should be the most important components of increasing the efficiency of agricultural subsidies. These components in agricultural subsidies are of high priority for the environmental situation in rural areas and the state of human capital.

The research was carried out in order to highlight the main problems that impede the increase in the competitiveness of Kazakhstani animal husbandry. The indicators of productivity (milk yield, shearing of wool from one sheep, etc.), as well as aggregated data (production volumes, indices of the physical volume of gross production) were used as criteria for assessing the development of the industry. In Kazakhstan, the share of beef pedigree cattle in 2019 accounted for only 11.5% of the total cattle population. The average live weight of cattle was 336 kg, the average slaughter weight was 175 kg, which is 2 times lower than world standards, the average live weight of 1 bird was 2.2 kg. The republic has a weak base for the production of basic feed for the fattening contingent, due to which its supply with such feed is at the level of 57.8% of the scientifically grounded norm. The share of breeding stock of dairy cattle (as of January 1, 2018) is 2.8%, birds of all types - 12.3% of the total livestock, sheep - 14.8%. In modern conditions, in order to increase competitiveness, it is necessary to focus efforts on solving such problems as providing highly productive breeding cattle and poultry; improving the fodder base by expanding the crops of corn, soybeans, alfalfa, chickpea; strengthening of preventive work against especially dangerous animal diseases; adaptation of scientific developments in the field of genetics, selection and fodder production to the current economic conditions in animal husbandry; accelerating the transfer of animal husbandry to new technologies; implementation of international standards for product quality and management