Determinants of the temporal variability of the state’s agricultural policy in Ukraine

The article is a review study examining the impact of a set of economic, political, security, and social factors on agricultural policy, which determines its temporal variability. The research is relevant because of the need to further improve agricultural policy to ensure its adaptation to modern conditions and challenges, and, consequently, to systematize the factors that have exerted varying degrees of influence over different time periods. In conducting the research, a set of methods was used: the logical method of concomitant variations, which made it possible to determine whether a change in circumstances causes a certain change in agricultural policy (establishing cause-and-effect relationships); systematization – in the process of identifying the temporal variability of agricultural policy by time periods; and generalization – for forming conclusions regarding the variability of agricultural policy under the influence of factors over time. The results of the study confirm the conclusion that agricultural policy is not a set of static norms: in different periods of time, in response to crisis events, market fluctuations, the policies of foreign countries, and other factors, it is restructured, but it invariably remains an important component of the overall economic policy of the state, given the social significance of agricultural production. The study of agricultural policy in Ukraine indicates its inconsistency during the 1990s; however, it was precisely during this period that the foundations of private land ownership were laid and the prerequisites for the functioning of the agricultural market were created. The main determinants of agricultural policy during the 1990s were political and economic factors. The orientation of agricultural policy during 2000–2014 toward supporting large commodity producers was one of the main factors in the formation of a holding-type model of the agricultural economy. Predominant support for large agricultural enterprises contributed to the further concentration of land and resources in the hands of agroholdings and to the weakening of the economic position of small and medium-sized farms, which became the main determinants of changes in agricultural policy in subsequent years. An important current trend is the digitalization of agricultural governance, which increases transparency in the distribution of state support, improves the quality of analytics, and enhances the state’s institutional capacity to shape agricultural policy. Keywords: agricultural policy, agri-food sector, determinacy, public administration, temporality, variability.