The purpose of this research is to substantiate the need to develop a professional standard “Management specialist in industries and at enterprises of the agro-industrial complex” to improve the provision of the Russian agro-industrial complex with management personnel. Methods. To achieve this purpose, it is rational to apply analytical and statistical research methods: to analyze the provision of the Russian agro-industrial complex with specialists with economic and managerial competencies, to carry out a comparative analysis of the job responsibilities of managers and chief specialists of agricultural organizations performing the functions of personnel management and production processes, and the content and volume of economic-management training for the agro-industrial complex. Results. The heads of agricultural organizations, their deputies and chief specialists do not always meet the requirements for educational level and possession of economic and managerial competencies. On average, in the system of the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia, only 66 % of heads of agricultural enterprises have higher education, among the main specialists – 71 %. In the agricultural sector, there is an obvious shortage of managerial personnel, a high proportion of them are without professional education, a large proportion is occupied by employees of retirement age. Training of personnel for the agro-industrial complex is carried out in 54 universities subordinate to the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia. The number of graduates in the main agricultural areas and specialties trained internally at the expense of the federal budget is more than 19 000 people, but there are only about 6 000 graduates of the specialist and magistracy who have the right to occupy leadership positions. In addition, in the main professional educational programs of personnel for the agro-industrial complex, little study time is allocated for the study of economic and management disciplines, which does not allow the formation of the necessary competencies in graduates to perform the functions of organizing agricultural production. To provide agricultural organizations with personnel with modern economic and management competencies, it is proposed to recommend that agricultural universities, when teaching students in the main specialties of the agricultural profile, determine the list of relevant disciplines, their volume and content in the main professional educational programs in accordance with the labor functions, knowledge and skills specified in the draft professional standard “Specialist in management in industries and enterprises of the agro-industrial complex”.

The main trends in technical upgrading in the modern world include the transition to a digital economy, aimed at reducing costs through the use of computer technology in the management, repair and regulation of machinery, the use of IT technology to improve the quality and effi ciency of the applied technologies. The paper presents the author’s vision of technical re-equipment and the transition to digital agriculture. The purpose and objective of the study was to develop directions for technical re-equipment of agriculture with digital technologies and to form a plan for the implementation of digital solutions. In order to identify the main barriers to technical re-equipment of agriculture under the conditions of digitalization, the authors have conducted a survey, observation and polling of agricultural producers of the Volga Federal District. It has been established that the application of new innovative solutions in Russian agricultural enterprises will require a long time due to the problems in fi nancial, economic, technological and psychological readiness of agricultural producers. The research has resulted in an algorithm developed by the authors for technical re-equipment of agriculture with digital technologies, which will allow managers and specialists of agriculture to use it as a basis in the digitalization of the technological capabilities of the agribusiness industry.

Energy and energy supply development determines the rate of production intensification, including agricultural production. The current state of rural power supply is characterized by a high degree of deterioration of electrical equipment, long distance overhead power lines, low reliability of low-voltage electrical networks, and a higher accident rate. With an aim of ensuring food security and export orientation of the industry for the next 5 years, it is necessary to implement a set of measures to improve the efficiency of energy supply to agricultural production. This task will be hampered by a constant rise in prices and tariffs for energy resources. Thus, over the last 20 years, energy costs have increased from 3-5 % to 30-40 % in agricultural production. The specific capital investment (per 1 kW of power) and the cost of 1 kWh of electricity were reported to depend on a type of local energy source and its capacity. The paper proposes a method for marking out the economic boundaries of the effective use of local power supply arrangements to replace a standard central station. A power gen-set supplying energy to an agricultural holding is capable of operating in two modes subsequent upon utility (central station) electricity – autonomous and parallel. The authors compared the cost of electrical and thermal energy produced by the power gen-set and tariffs for these types of energy. Calculations have shown that it is advisable for an agricultural holding to have a local power supply system being a power gen-set based on gas engine-generators.

Technical and technological re-equipment in modern conditions must be perceived as a process of increasing the technical equipment of economic sectors by replacing physically and morally obsolete and worn-out machines and equipment with intelligent technology, the use of more advanced production methods to increase labor productivity and reduce costs. Coupling the predictive stages of the socio-economic development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030 with technological modes allows us to correlate the fifth technological cycle with the stages of innovative development in order to simultaneously transfer the technical potential of economic sectors from the fifth to the sixth technological mode. It involves the digital transformation of technology as the basis for the development of an innovative economy, which provides favorable conditions for the transfer of domestic digital technologies into production, the technological sovereignty of the industry and the country's food security. The use of agricultural machines equipped with high-tech, innovative designs and solutions in the conditions of a real agricultural business will contribute to the large-scale digitalization of the industry, which serves as a significant trend in the development of the domestic economy. The empirical and comparative research methods used have revealed the need to take measures to accelerate the process of transition to a new technological method of production based on intelligent technology using new types of energy, digitization of jobs and production of technotronic equipment in order to neo-industrialize the country in the period from 2021 to 2030.

The power supply of agro-industrial enterprises depends on qualitative power supply. The application of local sources of power supply for the large commercial enterprises and their associations makes it possible to eliminate the disadvantages of centralized power supply. The article justifi es the transition from centralized power supply to local power sources for rural consumers. The authors developed a criterion to estimate power supply options for agro-industrial objects. The criterion is an integral index including capital investments in power source and current costs of its operation. Using the criterion and taking into account the conditions of energy comparability of the compared variants, we can determine the most preferable engineering power supply system of agro-industrial objects. Using the example of “AgroPromkomplektatsiya” holding divisions, the author analytically proved the relevance, expediency, and eff ectiveness of using the local source of energy supply (mini-CHP) - an autonomous 3 MW energy complex based on the innovative gas piston unit GPU “Jenbacher”. The actual common grid electricity tariff was 6.41 rubles/kWh, while the cost of electricity based on the innovative gas piston unit amounted to 3.34 rubles/kWh.