Legal nature of relations in the field of agro-innovation development: theoretical and legal approaches and directions
Authors: Kurman Tetiana 
Published: July 2024

Problem setting. Ukraine’s agriculture is a powerful, export-oriented sector of the national economy that has proven its resilience and viability even in the extremely difficult conditions of martial law. However, its further effective and sustainable functioning, including its post-war revival, is certainly linked to agro-innovation development, with the introduction of innovations in all sectors and at all stages of agricultural production. This problem has become even more urgent as a result of the unprecedented armed aggression of the Russian Federation. Serious challenges for Ukrainian agriculture, which is currently under extremely difficult conditions of martial law, have become disruption of agricultural production processes, destruction and destruction of agricultural facilities, blocking of logistics routes, mining of agricultural land, etc. Undoubtedly, conducting agribusiness and preserving the agrarian potential of our country under martial law, as well as the post-war revival of the agricultural sector and the need to further realize the agro-export potential, require innovative approaches, solutions and technologies. Analysis of recent researches and publications. The issues of development of innovation activity and introduction of innovations into economic activity in general are given sufficient attention in science, in particular by such representatives of economic and legal science as: Yu. Kuznetsova, V.K. Mamutov, V.V. Panchenko, O.A. Podopryhora, O.P. Podtserkovnyi, V.I. Semchyk, O.E. Simson, O.V. Skydan, A.M. Stativka, V.V. Yurchyshyn and others. However, these scientific works are mainly aimed at studying innovation activities from the standpoint of economic, civil or economic and legal science and do not take into account the specifics of agro-innovation development, the need for its implementation on the basis of sustainability, especially in the context of martial law or post-war revival of Ukraine. Thus, the issues of legal support for sustainable agro-innovation development in modern conditions remain insufficiently elaborated by the legal doctrine and are the most problematic, and this determines the relevance and expediency of their study. Purpose of the research is to define the legal nature of relations in the field of agro-innovation development, legal issues in their regulation, and also to elaborate proposals for improving the current legislation in this area under martial law. Article’s main body. The article is devoted to the study of theoretical and legal issues of sustainable agro-innovation development in Ukraine. The author emphasizes that the dynamics of the world economy in the context of globalization and the development of scientific and technological progress demonstrates the crucial role of effective mechanisms of innovation policy in ensuring the competitiveness of the agricultural sector. The further efficient and sustainable functioning of agriculture, including its post-war revival, is certainly linked to agro-innovation development, with the introduction of innovations in all sectors and at all stages of agricultural production. The article examines the status and identifies the problems of legislative support of relations in the field of agroinnovation development in Ukraine, and analyzes their legal nature. The author notes that agro-innovation legal relations are one of the independent types of agrarian legal relations as the subject matter of modern agrarian law, and analyzes their features as a complex agrarian legal category. The author distinguishes and reveals the content of the following areas of agro-innovation activity: agro-technological, technical, information, marketing and logistics, organizational, selective and breeding, social, scientific and educational. Conclusions and prospects for the development. The author comes to the conclusion that the conceptual basis for agrarian law science is the definition of theoretical and legal approaches to the category of “agro-innovation development”, among which the following are distinguished: entrepreneurship-oriented, socio-economic, environmental safety and value-based. The author proves the need to adopt a special Law of Ukraine “On Innovations in the Agricultural Sector” or “On Agricultural Innovation Activity”. This will make the regulated relations more stable and solve a number of other legal issues, in particular, by defining the main categories and concepts, principles and directions of agro-innovation activities, types of agro-innovations, introducing institutional and functional approaches to the state agro-innovation policy, state and grant support in this area, etc. It is summarized that in modern conditions, the issue of forming a holistic and effective mechanism of legal support for agro-innovation development in Ukraine is extremely relevant not only for the further development of agrarian law science, but also for the further development of agrarian law. First of all, this concerns clarification of the legal nature, content and features of agro-innovation legal relations as an element of the subject matter of agrarian law, and determination of the priority areas of agro-innovation activities. Solving this task will not only enrich agrarian legal science, but also further improve national legislation and adapt it to the requirements of EU law, without which it is impossible to ensure the proper functioning of agribusiness, guarantee the food security of the state and sustainable development of the agricultural sector both under martial law and during the post-war revival.