The Role of Digital Technology in the Formation of Agri-Food Clusters

Abstract

The Russian economy is in the process of achieving compliance with current trends in the development of the global economic system. This necessitates the strengthening of competitive positions in the domestic and global markets through the use of digital technologies in its various sectors, including agri-food. The purpose of the study is to identify the role, prospects and problems of the use of digital technologies in the development of agri-food clusters for the processing of agricultural products. The article shows that the concept of managing the agro-industrial clusters development as self-organizing systems which can integrate the activities of small and medium enterprises in the value chain should be developed and implemented on the basis of modern digital technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning, cyber-physical systems, blockchain, neural networks, robotics, 3D-modeling, virtual reality, cloud computing and other directions. The authors identified specific industry features that complicate and slow down the development of the agricultural digital platform, substantiate promising areas for the use of digital technologies in agriculture. Due to the obtained data, the authors developed an algorithm for creating an agri-food cluster and proposed the author’s model of a regional digital cluster for deep processing of eggs based on the integration of agricultural producers of the Stavropol territory. The application of the method of statistical analysis, a systematic approach, and the method of self-reflection of researchers allowed us to identify and specify the problems and relevant areas of digitalization for the emerging Russian agri-food clusters.