Purpose. The purpose of the article is to analyze the contribution of agricultural enterprises and households to Ukrainian agrarian production, to determine the place of agricultural holdings in its formation and to indicate the role of the agricultural sector in Ukrainian exports.
Methodology / approach. The methodological research tool is an economic analysis of the activities of business entities. The statistical data of the main indicators of the production activities of agricultural enterprises is being used as empirical information. In the process of research, the following methods of economic analysis were used: formalized – a graphical method, percentage numbers, methods of mathematical statistics; non-formalized – expert assessment, comparison, analytical tables.
Results. An estimation of the dynamics of agricultural output in the basic categories of farms in 2010–2017 was made, the share of the basic categories of farms in the crop and livestock production was determined. It is noted that in the agrarian sector of Ukraine there has been a polarization in the production of agricultural products – self-employed small-scale forms of management dominate the production of labor-intensive and low-profitable products, while large industrial high-quality agricultural enterprises are highly profitable and low labor-intensive. Researches have shown that one of the leading places in the crop production is sunflower cultivation due to its high profitability. In the example of sunflower production shows the possibilities of economic and mathematical modeling as a tool for evaluating production efficiency and forecasting. The place of the agrarian sector in the structure of Ukraine’s commodity exports in 2017 has been analyzed. It was shown that an important place in the Ukrainian agro-industrial complex is occupied by agricultural holdings, which, in particular, are very significant in the formation of Ukrainian exports of cereals and oil plants.
Originality / scientific novelty. Trends and the current state of the agro-industrial sector of Ukraine researches have been further developed. A comparative evaluation of the effectiveness and contribution of the basic categories of farms to the agricultural production at the present stage was made. For the first time, economic and mathematical models for the analysis of the main indicators of sunflower cultivation have been proposed.
Practical value / implications. The growing role of agricultural enterprises, in particular, agricultural holdings, in the development of the agro-industrial complex is shown, the place of Ukrainian agricultural products in the world food market is defined and the importance of diversification Ukrainian exports is pointed out. The established trend lines of sunflower cultivation indicators made it possible to calculate the corresponding short-term forecasts, which can be taken into account when justifying alternatives for the future development of agricultural enterprises.