THE ECOLOGICAL COMPONENT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE AGRI-FOOD SPHERE OF THE SOUTHERN REGION

The article describes the importance and scientific approaches to the essence of the environmental component of sustainable development of agricultural sphere of the region. The main environmental problems in the agri-food sphere of the Southern region are characterized. The nature, direction and characteristics of an ecologically balanced and sustainable development of the agri-food sphere of the region have been determined. Кey words: sustainable development, environmental component, agri-food sphere, natural resource potential, the region.


THE ECOLOGICAL COMPONENT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE AGRI-FOOD SPHERE OF THE SOUTHERN REGION
The article describes the importance and scientific approaches to the essence of the environmental component of sustainable development of agricultural sphere of the region. The main environmental problems in the agri-food sphere of the Southern region are characterized. The nature, direction and characteristics of an ecologically balanced and sustainable development of the agri-food sphere of the region have been determined.
Кey words: sustainable development, environmental component, agri-food sphere, natural resource potential, the region.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Statement of the problem and its connection with important scientific and practical tasks. It is well known, that sustainable development includes economic, environmental and social components. The balanced use of natural resources is a necessary condition for economic progress. Investment in the environment is a prerequisite for sustainable development, as sustainable development is development that meets the needs of modern generations and provides an opportunity for future generations to meet their own needs. The experience of our country and of European countries shows that high-tech agriculture and the industrialized food industry cannot meet the demands of today's consumers in natural and healthy food products. Paradoxically, but in terms of development of high technologies and artificial substitutes, the least processed natural products, ecotourism and wildlife are more valued. Therefore, the formation and implementation of environmental policy in the agri-food sphere is an acute problem.
The analysis of the latest publications on the problem. Environmental aspects of sustainable development of socio-economic systems were investigated by such scientists as G. Daly, M. Kvesic, Ye. Khlobystov, B. Burkynskyi, S. Kharichkov, N. Andreeva, L. Khromushina, A. Furdychko, P. Haidutskyi, O. Khodakivska etc. In their scientific work, they revealed the economic aspects of the reproduction and rational use of resources in the agri-food sphere of Ukraine. However, there is a need for a systematic analysis of the factors that cause environmental problems in the agri-food sphere of the Southern region.
Forming of the aims of the research.The purpose of this article is to identify the essence of the effective mechanisms of activation and directions of greening in the agri-food sphere of the Southern region.
Giving an account of the main results and their substantiation. At the macro level, the region is a combination of several areas identified by certain characteristics. From a geographical point of view, Ukraine is divided into the five regions: Northern, Western, Central, North and South. The Southern region mainly occupies the territory of the Black sea lowland and includes three regions: The Ministry of ecology and natural resources. Ecological passport of Mykolaiv, Odessa and Kherson. The area is located at the intersection of national and international sea routes of the Azov-Black sea basin. One of the key powerful factors in the development of the agri-food sphere is the natural resource potential of the region. The Southern region is rich in land, climatic and recreational resources, at the same time there is shortage of water and forest resources. The economic component of sustainable development of agricultural sphere of the region can be described quite positively (table 1), but with some predominance of crop production over livestock. At the same time, environmental and social aspects need to be improved significantly.
The major environmental challenges of the agrifood sphere of the region, which require urgent solutions, are the condition of natural resources and regulation of anthropogenic and technogenic load on them in the process of their exploitation. In particular, emissions of polluting substances in atmospheric air from agriculture and food industry of the Odessa region in 2015 were, respectively, 0, 552 thousand tons and 1, 584 thousand tons, which made up 2.5% and 6.2% in total emissions. The area of degraded lands is 98.6 thousand hectares, which corresponded to 8.5% of the total area of the region [2, p. 15]. The environmental situation in the agrifood sphere of the Nikolaev and Kherson areas is similar, its characteristics are presented in detail in sources [3, 4].

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ЕКОНОМІКА ХАРЧОВОЇ ПРОМИСЛОВОСТІ Том 9, Випуск 1/2017 The above figures indicate a significant contribution of the agri-food sphere in the degradation of the natural resource potential of the region. Negative impact on the environment caused by agricultural production is associated with the depletion of natural resources and pollution resulting from the application of pesticides and fertilizers. This is confirmed by the investigation of N. Malik and M. Kvesic. From their point of view: "the main causes of environmental degradation is the lack of the advanced technologies, failure to comply with sciencebased crop rotations, use of improper fertilizers and pesticides, increase in the area of technogenic polluted lands" [5, p. 5]. The orientation of a considerable part of commodity producers in agri-food sphere to obtain economic benefits from its activities quickly, the low level of control and responsibility for inefficient use of land and a number of other natural resource factors today is a significant threat to environmental and food security of the state. Therefore, the improvement of the living conditions and the ecological state of the Southern region depends on the timely solution of such tasks as: development and expansion of the network of territories and objects of natural reserve fund; reducing of water bodies pollution, introduction of systems for water recycling; neutralization of unusable and prohibited chemical means of plant protection; development and improvement of the ecological state of irrigated and drained lands, etc. Undoubtedly, agri-food production should be profitable, but it should provide natural quality of the made products, it should not destroy the natural environment. The industrial model of the agri-food sphere, largely contributes to the appearance of the so-called environmental barrier. This means, that future growth of production in this area, should be obtained by increasing the level of knowledge, innovation and the use of biomass which is formed from solar energy. That is, ecologically balanced development of agrifood sphere, provides for an increase in production of agricultural and food production while maintaining ecosystem [6, p. 38]. The purpose of further agri-food sphere development is the formation of the effective, competitive, sustainable and environmentally safe agricultural production.
Due to the deterioration of the ecological situation and increase of the public awareness, in recent years in the Southern region and in Ukraine in general, increasing the demand for ecosafe or organic products increases.
The ecosafe products are characterized by the following features: -the usefulness of food for health, their energy and biological value, taste and appearance; -ecological quality of products in general -is the lack of harmful substances, their use or consumption is not harmful, has no significant negative impact on the natural environment; -ecological quality of production is minimization of the use of resources and energy, reducing of industrial emissions and wastes of all kinds; -environmental quality of wastes disposalfood packaging, suitable for re-cycled application is used [7, p. 280].
The environmental benefits of organic production are in the gradual restoration of the quality of land resources, by the observance of crop rotations, use of green fertilizers and methods of pest control, technologies of soil tillage aimed at minimal intervention and also reduction of pollution of water bodies and atmospheric air through the restriction of the use of synthetic agrochemicals.
The organic agricultural production has been mostly widespread in the south of Ukraine: Odessa and Kherson regions. On the basis of objective reality, grain products produced in the Black sea region, including organic ones, are exported. The proximity to ports, allows you to carry out these operations with smaller transport costs, which makes these areas more attractive for development of organic products from the point of view of international trading companies [8].
M. Stehney notes, that under a sustainable development in the food industry one should understand the complex ecological and socio -economic development, which covers: -employment of the rural population (as in the field of agri-food production and alternative activities); -the achievement of comparability of income and development of social infrastructure in rural areas with the average indices for the country; -ensuring proper utilization of the environment resources and a sufficient level of their recovery and scientifically based proportions when using, mineral fertilizers, plant protection products, genetically modified organisms in agricultural activities; -the use of safe for health dyes, preservatives, emulsifiers and other additives which are used in the technological processes during food production; -development and manufacture of food products, which increase adaptive abilities of man to the effects of adverse environmental factors and the environmental situation in certain regions [ 9, p. 30].

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ЕКОНОМІКА ХАРЧОВОЇ ПРОМИСЛОВОСТІ Том 9, Випуск 1/2017 From the point of view of ecology, sustainable development must ensure the integrity of natural systems and their viability, depends to the global stability of the whole agri-food sphere depends on it. The ability of such systems to heal them-selves and adapt to the changes instead of saving them it in a certain static condition or degradation and loss of biological diversity, is of great importance.
Ecological development of the food industry, in the Southern region requires an economic use of water resources in agriculture, in particular the introduction of drip irrigation technology. The food industry is requiring significant amounts of water resources, so its transition to an advanced production technology with a closed cycle of water use is ecologically justified and it's necessary because it will help to reduce volumes of wastewater and cease discharge to the water bodies. Most water-based food industries are meat, dairy, starch, fruit and vegetable canning, sugar etc.
It should be understood that sustainable development of the state, the region is formed at the expense of the results of activities of individual businesses, including taking into account the sectoral characteristics of the development. The modern agricultural production is inseparably linked with energy resources. Specific energy consumption in the agri-food sphere is the use of renewable and non-renewable sources of energy. Renewable energy sources include solar energy, as well as wind and tides. The energy of biomass can also be included here. Traditional types of fuel and energy resources include natural gas, oil, coal, peat etc. If industrial agri-food sphere characteristic is the use of exhaustive sources of energy, for post-industrial development, finding and using renewable sources of energy and unconventional energy resources [10, p. 125]. In particular, the leading diversified agri-food company «Kernel», are the main aims equips their oil factories with modern boilers that burn the husks of sunflower. The burning of the husk allows to save about 72 cubic meters of natural gas per year. With the aim of reducing the negative impact on the environment, all enterprises, elevators and terminals of the company are carefully monitored and the costs of water resources and waste a number of wastes are minimized [11].
From ecological positions the threat of global climate change is dangerous. It is caused by significant anthropogenic pressure on nature, resulting in increased concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which leads to an increase in air temperature. This, in turn, causes a change in the temperature of the soil, its moisture content, chemical composition, precipitation, natural disasters, soil erosion, degradation, which ultimately leads to a decrease in the volume of agri-food production [12, p. 88]. In the framework of the Kyoto Protocol to the UN framework Convention on climate change, Ukraine has a status that opens up the possibility of participation in the international system of emissions trading of greenhouse gases, including the mechanism of realization of joint implementation projects. According to this mechanism, Ukrainian enterprises have the opportunity to get money from international investors in exchange for greenhouse gas emission reduction that will be achieved as a result of the implementation of relevant projects.
Conclusions and prospects of the further investigations. At the base of sustainable development of the individual regions and the economy as a whole, a reasonable forecast of the future should be placed. It is necessary to create a balanced system of development control of the production, which promotes environmental protection and ensures careful use of natural resources. Special attention should be paid to the land resources, the state of which depends not only on the productivity and production, but also on the status of the food security for the population of the Southern region. Taking into the account the overall development of agri-food sphere in the Southern region, processing of organic waste can become an inexhaustible source of resources for bioenergy in agricultural enterprises of the region. Also, the region has significant prospective opportunities for development of organic production in the agri-food sphere.