History of Science and Engineering Annotation << Back THE HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF RESEARCH ON THE ECONOMICS OF VEGETABLE GROWING IN VNIIO – A BRANCH OF THE FEDERAL STATE BUDGET SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTION FEDERAL SCIENTIFIC CENTER A.F. Razin, R.A. Meshcheryakova, T.N. Surikhina, G.A. Teleginа When organizing the Institute for Vegetables in 1930, it was envisaged to create a department of economics and organization of vegetable production. The department’s task was to develop economic and organizational issues, and in subsequent years, research was aimed at solving specifi c problems that are extremely important for the country’s agricultural sector and industry development. The results of studying the economic efficiency of the production of certain types of vegetables in the open ground revealed the feasibility of using the natural resources of the south of the country for the production of tomatoes and other heat-loving vegetables with the subsequent transportation of products to the cities and industrial centers of the northern region and the non-chernozem zone of the Soviet Union and served as the main creation of commodity vegetable growing zones, specialized farms and greenhouse complexes around large cities and industrial centers of Russia. A promising scheme was developed for the development and placement of vegetable growing in the USSR zones in open and protected ground. The implementation of the achievements of scientific and technological progress in agriculture in the 80s of the last century required a revision of the existing concepts of optimal levels of concentration of production and the forms of its specialization. Studies were conducted on topical issues such as the development and distribution of vegetable growing in the Union republics and economic regions of the RSFSR, problems of interfarm and agricultural cooperation in vegetable growing, reserves for intensifying vegetable growing, improving the organization of production and increasing the economic efficiency of the production of marketable vegetables and vegetable seeds. As a result, the main directions of scientific and technological progress in vegetable growing for the future were developed. In subsequent years, the department focused on developing the agrobiological basis for the placement and organization of vegetable seed production. As a result, the zonal distribution of seed crops under industrial seed production was justified, taking into account the biological characteristics of vegetable crops and agricultural technology of selection and varietal seed crops. Studies on the development of commercial vegetable and seed growing under the conditions existing at the beginning of the new century, economic relations and forms of management have allowed us to develop a draft strategy for the development of vegetable production in the Russian Federation for the period until 2020. The economic aspects of the innovation activity of the enterprises of the agro-industrial complex of Russia in market conditions were developed. Over the past 10-15 years, the main focus of research has been the development of mechanisms to ensure stable production of competitive vegetable products for large and small commodity farms, taking into account functioning in the context of the WTO, EAEU and sanctions. The systemic problems that limit the increase in the production of vegetable products and adversely affect its effectiveness are identified, the main ways to solve them are formulated. Keywords: economics and organization of production, vegetable growing, concentration, specialization, commodity production, seed production, innovative activity, competitiveness, safety, large and small-scale production. DOI: 10.25791/intstg.10.2020.1229 Pp. 111-120.