Resource information
Taking into account the development of the market for energy crops and biofuels, the work substantiates the need to develop comprehensive public policy measures that will take into account the various functions of land resources (economic, environmental and social), as well as their role in the formation of energy resources in rural areas. The positive impact of the use of energy crops as raw materials for the production of biofuels on the conservation of ecosystems and the solution of issues concerning pollution and minimizing the trend of global warming was theoretically justified. The conducted researches allowed to identify and analyze the main groups of contradictions and conflicts of interest in the cultivation of energy crops for biofuel production: a negative impact on food security; increase in prices for food products; competition for energy cultures between the food and energy markets; competition for the use of natural resources (mainly land), competition in the energy market for fuels. The advantages of using biofuels from energy crops in agriculture are revealed. A theoretical and methodological approach to assessing the potential of growing energy crops for biofuel production is proposed, which, unlike existing ones, is based on the definition of the level of selfsufficiency of the territory by food using the coefficient of land-resource independence. Based on the results of the calculations, it is determined that the land and resource potential of the regions of Ukraine as a whole provides a high and satisfactory amount of food, except for two regions (Donetsk – 0.8 and Transcarpathian – 0.5), and also allows the use of a significant amount of land resources for the cultivation of energy crops. The approach to development of the market of energy crops, which involves diversification of agricultural activity and land use depending on ecological and economic features of production, is grounded.
