Shagaida N. I., Ternovsky D. S. From garden to fields: The difficult path of the potato // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2025. V.10. №4. P. 146-164.

EDN: PDSUBX

Annotation

The article considers the structural shifts in the Russian potato market from 1991 to 2025. Based on the Rosstat data, agricultural censuses and household budget surveys, the authors identify long-term trends in the potato price dynamics, consumption, production and economic affordability. Thus, despite periodic price jumps, in the long run the potato has steadily become cheaper in real terms, while simultaneously losing significance in the consumer basket under the rising population income. The authors focus on the deep transformation of the production structure — a rapid shift in dominance from households (their share in production fell from 90% in the 1990s to 50% in 2022) to the commercial sector (agricultural enterprises and (peasant) farms). This shift is determined by the declining economic viability of household production compared to large enterprises implementing new technologies. The authors warn of risks to food security associated with the decline in household production outpacing growth in the commercial sector, which potentially leads to increased price volatility, and propose government support measures aimed at stimulating cooperation, facilitating access to land, and increasing production efficiency to ensure a stable potato market.

Keywords

Potato, households, food consumption, agricultural production, food security, food prices, price volatility, economic affordability, purchasing power.  

About the authors

Natalia I. Shagaida, DSc (Economics), Head of the Center for Agro-Food Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. Vernadskogo Prosp., 82, Moscow, 119571, Russia.
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Denis S. Ternovsky, DSc (Economics), Senior Researcher, Center for Agro-Food Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. Vernadskogo Prosp., 82, Moscow, 119571, Russia.
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Alekseev A.I., Efimova O.Yu., Tkachenko A.A. The spatial structure of kinship (on the example of the Zharkovsky settlement of the Tver Region) // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2019. V.4. №2. P. 128-137.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2019-4-2-128-137

Annotation

The article considers the spatial structure of relationships of families in the peripheral settlement Zharkovsky (3 thousand inhabitants) with their children and relatives in other cities and villages. There are 180 members in 90 surveyed families of the village that has been losing population for the last 50 years, and its “diaspora” has spread from Dublin to Vladivostok and from Murmansk to Amman. The children of Zharkovsky’s residents are mostly students in two nearest regional centers—Tver and Smolensk, and also in Moscow and Saint Petersburg; educational institutions in medium-sized and small cities are less popular. Other relatives live in the same cities, but are much more dispersed in the cities of Siberia, the Kaliningrad Region, Belarus, etc. Most of the households under study consist of middle-aged parents or, more often, only of a mother, or elderly parents, whose children have already left the village. The spatial structure of kinship is usually “centrifugal”: the majority of relatives in other places are those who left the village. However, sometimes children live in the village while parents live in other places: these are children who left the villages of the Zharkovsky district, in which their elderly parents still live. Thus, there is also a “centripetal” structure of kinship ties: some residents of the village are recent immigrants from other places.

Keywords

kinship, spatial structure, Tver Region, households, rural-urban migration

About the authors

Alexander I. Alekseev, DSc (Geography), Professor, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University. 119991, Moscow, Lenin Hills, 1.
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Olga Y. Efimova, Student, Faculty of Geography and Ecology, Tver State University. Tver, Proshina St., 3, bldg. 2.
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Alexander A. Tkachenko, DSc (Geography), Professor, Faculty of Geography and Geographical Ecology, Tver State University. Tver, Proshina St., 3, bldg. 2.
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