There are several stages associated with fundamental changes in arrangement and production technologies for the development of agricultural production in the Republic of Belarus. Each of the stage was associated with achievements of scientific and technological progress and had important social and economic consequences. The paper dwells on the stages
of agriculture development in the Republic of Belarus since 1919 to the present days. The basic transformations of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food as a body for state administration of agriculture are covered. It is shown that nowadays the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Belarus performs absolutely greater part of functions in the field of state agriculture management, in particular: administration, economic regulation, legal regulation, state agricultural policy, state control. It is known that high level of agro-industrial complex development guarantees the food security of the state, therefore, political independence and sovereignty as well. Over the years of the sovereign existence, the Republic of Belarus has been able to restore and develop agriculture, ensuring the country’s food security, as well as become an important exporter of food and agricultural products. Thus, the achieved results of agricultural production confirm the right chosen course aimed at intensive methods of work based on achievements of science and technology.

Economic efficiency at agricultural companies greatly depends on availability of production means, including fixed and circulating assets, their structure and application efficiency. Specialization has a significant impact on the structure of production means. Problems of optimization of the structure of production means are studied by scientists from near abroad, but their research are of fragmented character and mostly do not take into account specialization of agricultural producers. In this regard, the relevance of research conducted is conditioned by the need to determine the perfect structure of fixed and circulating assets in the context of specialization profile, which will serve as a guide for agricultural companies, especially when scheduling investment activities. The paper dwells on the following main areas of specialization: dairy and beef cattle; grain production with dairy cattle breeding; grain production with dairy and beef cattle breeding; dairy cattle breeding. The effect of the natural material and age structure of fixed assets, as well as the structure of circulating assets depending on the functional role for the economic and financial indicators of agricultural companies in the context of specialization is analyzed. The effect of qualitative indicators of agricultural production on the structure of production was studied, partial dependencies between the studied indicators were identified, and the perfect structure of fixed and circulating assets was determined according to specialization. Investment options in fixed assets of inefficiently functioning agricultural companies were proposed to bring their structure to the optimal level. In terms of specialization profile, models were constructed reflecting the effect of factor indicators (cost of production means elements) on the efficient one (revenue from agricultural products sales). Regression analysis allowed to determine the nature of the effect of factor indicators on the efficient one, as well as to identify reserves for increasing production and financial indicators. These developments can be used for scheduling production and investment activities of agricultural companies.

In modern economic conditions, efficiency and quality of assessment of prospects for development of business entity are the key to the best timely management decision making, contributing to increase in efficiency of economic entity. Efficient methods for assessing the financial status of agricultural companies and diagnosing critical situations allows to determine the threat of bankruptcy at the earliest stages and to use all the possibilities to neutralize it. Improving the methodology for conducting financial analysis of companies’ solvency in order to identify symptoms of crisis situations in organizations of agro-industrial complex more accurately and timely through the development of new diagnostic methods adapted to the existing conditions of economic activity is an urgent task of scientific research of local and foreign researchers. Probability of eliminating the consequences of negative impact on the economy of companies of agro-industrial complex depends on timely and accurate diagnostics of critical situations. The paper dwells on the areas of improvement of methodological approaches for assessment of financial status of agricultural companies. Taking into account the generalization of local and foreign experience, new models and directions for improving the methods for assessment of the financial status of agricultural companies and diagnosing economic insolvency (bankruptcy) existing in the country are proposed, including features for assessing the financial status of peasant farms. The problems discussed in the paper are of interest within the framework of the developed model of fundamental diagnostics based on the method of expert assessments of the major risks probability, which impact can adversely affect the financial status of an agricultural company and lead to economic crisis, as well as method for assessing the economic efficiency and financial status of peasant (farm) business, taking into account specifics of accounting and specifics of agricultural production.

At the present stage, the basis of sustainable socio-economic development of the Republic of Belarus is the rational use of the economic potential of economic entities of various sectors of the economy, including companies of process­ing industry. The current situation requires changes in economic relations in AIC in order to improve competitiveness and po­tential of the national foodstuff system of the Republic of Belarus. Implementation of these tasks requires application of more advanced methods of management of economic potential of processing enterprises in AIC. The paper dwells on substantiation of the theoretical basis for formation of economic potential of processing enterprises in AIC, including clarification of concept © Волкова Е. В., 2019 of “economic potential of processing enterprises in AIC” as a set of maximum capacity of enterprises, substantiated by avail­able resources for the efficient production of goods, works and services in order to meet the market requirements, taking into account the factors of internal and external environment. Unlike existing ones, this definition includes not only opportunities and resources, but also a specific result, which requires a systematic approach to its evaluation. The scientific novelty of the­oretical development is a systematic approach to the analysis of formation of the economic potential of processing enterprises in agro-industrial complex in terms of “resources, maximum possibilities, result and assessment”. The features of formation of economic potential of processing enterprises in agro-industrial complex as a whole and its structural elements: resource, as set of resources used directly for production (fixed and circulating assets, human resources), and maintenance one - factors and conditions that provide efficient use of resources of companies used for final production. The proposed structure of the elements of economic potential characterizes most entirely the maximum capabilities of processing companies in AIC and ensures conditions for assessing the actual and perspective level of their development, which determines the significance for practice of the results obtained.

This is the first time in conditions of Semisavanna of Ukraine when mutual effect of winter wheat precursors and three complex growth-regulating preparations on the growth, development and yield of winter wheat grain has been studied. It has been determined that Antistress, Mars-EL and four amino acid complex preparations can be used for winter wheat growing technology with the aim to increase its yield both during the naked fallow sowing, and after a grain precur- © Позняк В. В., 2019 sor. Greater effect is provided by preparations at winter wheat re-sowing - the yield increase made 0.32-0.81 t/ha. The less significant but stable increase in yield of 0.27-0.59 t/ha is provided by complex growth-regulating preparations during sowing wheat over wheat. Use of the studied complex preparations with a wide range of action throughout the growing season had a positive effect on indicators characterizing growth, development and formation of winter wheat yield. The most effective was the joint use of Antistress and Mars-EL preparations (0.5-0.71 t/ha increase) and all the three drugs together (Antistress + Mars-EL + amino acid complex) when additional 0.59-0.81 t/ha of grain was obtained. Thus, our research has shown that use of new promising growth-regulating agents for winter wheat growing technology makes it possible to implement its genetic potential and increase yield more efficiently, which undoubtedly is of a great importance for agricultural farms specializing in production of this crop.

The level of biogenic significance of chromium in animals is determined by a generous amount of vital pro­cesses it participates in. The trivalent form of chromium (III) has biological significance. Standard chromium level in diets for farm animals currently vary from 0.2 to 4.2 mg per 1 kg of dry matter, and chromium is represented mainly by compounds in the form of salts and chelates. A distinctive feature of microelement nanoparticles is the ability to activate physiological and biochemical processes when used in very small doses. The paper dwells on study of different doses and forms of chromium in diets for young pigs: in the form of sulphate (4.16 mg/kg of dry matter of feed) and in the form of nanoparticles (0.5, 0.083, 0.05, 0.02 mg/kg of dry matter of feed). Research showed that enrichment of diets with chromium in the form of nanoparticles © Голушко В. М., Кравченко А. В., Линкевич С. А., 2019 in the amount of 0.05 mg per 1 kg of dry matter was most effective. It was determined that use of chromium nanoparticles for feeding pigs by adding them to water, the feed was kneaded up to obtain loose porridge, was more efficient than spraying on wheat bran. The positive effect of feeding animals with chromium nanoparticles on meat traits of carcass was revealed. A high assessment of biological safety of slaughter products of experimental pigs using test organisms of Tetrahymena piri­formis and laboratory mice was determined. The data obtained in the course of research allow to recommend using chromium nanoparticles in the amount of 0.05 mg per 1 kg of dry matter of feed for young pigs during rearing and fattening periods in order to increase the average daily weight gain, reduce feed cost for its production, improve meat products quality and pro­duction economic efficiency.

The basic feed for calves during pre-weaning period is whole milk. In order to reduce consumption of whole milk in the leading Western countries, whole milk replacers are used. Attempts to produce local whole milk replacers have not yet found wide distribution due to the high consumption of dry milk and lack of production of hydrogenated fat with addi­tives of vitamins and microelements in Belarus. In recent years, production process of local milk replacers has been started to develop. An innovative technology has been developed for production of whole milk replacers based on local grains, legumes and oil crops, taking the idea of processing them into easily digestible liquid feeds based on moisture-and-heat treatment of grain components using cavitation energy. A special hydrodynamic plant was designed, allowing to obtain a homogeneous mass right of the grain forage, which does not decompose into fractions, highly palatable and easily digested by animals. The allowable processing temperature of leguminous crops was determined to be 80 °C maximum. In order to reduce processing time of the water-and-grain mixture and increase process productivity, a hypothesis was put forward related to use of elec­tromagnetic field for heating the mixture moving in pipeline. Studies have confirmed the efficiency of the electromagnetic field. Moisture-and-heat treatment of grain forage by cavitation using induction heating allows, in a short period of time and at a low temperature, to get easily digestible feed and preserve essential amino acids and vitamins. The developed innovative technology and equipment allows to reduce consumption of whole milk by 15-20% when growing calves during pre-weaning period.

Problem of creating agricultural energy systems is of a significant multifactor system-and-situational na­ture, depending on the external economic and energy situation in the country, which predetermines accelerated development of autonomous energy centers of agro-towns based on joint use of centralized fuel and energy and local energy resources. The modern method for integrated energy supply of agro-towns as integrated territorial-and-economic entities of agro-industrial complex of the country with significant technical potential of local resources, including renewable energy sources, was devel­oped based on appropriate conceptual tools and principles of multi-level conceptual design and simulation modeling of inte­grated energy systems using method of conceptual expertize as advanced scientific research, pre-project technical-and-eco- nomic and technical -and-technological substantiation of rational structure of the concept project. As a priority, a system­atic approach to development of regional systems of pilot projects of demonstration areas of high energy efficiency based on highly organized agro-towns and, first of all, experimental farms of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus is substantiated. With this purpose, the Institute of Energy of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus has developed software-based computing complex of an intelligent multi-level decision making support system providing simulation mod­eling and substantiation of rational scenarios for the concept project of an integrated energy system. The software package includes system of inherited and original software packages for staged procedure for performing computational experiments with a reasonable range of research risks. The conceptual content of the project depends on the Customer’s requirements, aims and objectives of the research, sectoral focus of agro-industrial enterprise, availability of sufficient technical poten­tial of local energy resources, and the consistency of interests of the owners, regional and national governing structures of various sectors of an agro-town. The studies performed with examples of a number of agro-industrial enterprises and social and cultural sectors of agro-towns show a significant (up to 60%) improvement in quality of choosing a rational struc­ture of a concept project for an integrated energy system and reduction (203 times) in sophistication of engineering design compared to ordinary 2-3-variant technical-and-economic substantiation of the project. Acknowledgements. The research was carried out within the framework of the State Program “Energy Systems, Processes and Technologies”, Sub-program 1.1 “Energy Security and Reliability of Energy Systems”, 2016-2018, with the support of the Belarusian Republican Foundation for Fundamental Research.

Starch derivatives containing ether cationic groups (amino-, ammonium, sulfonium, phosphonium, etc.) are vital commercial product. Cationic starches with tertiary amino- and quaternary ammonium ether groups have found the greatest use. The paper is devoted to sore problem - deep processing of vegetable starch-containing raw materials and in particular production of domestic chemically modified (substituted) cationic starch. Comparative studies of the kinetics of the reac­tion of obtaining cationic ethers of potato and corn starch using N-(3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyl)-N,N,N-trimethylammonium © Литвяк В. В., 2019 chloride depending on the molar ratio of reagents, temperature, concentration of starch suspension and the nature of na­tive starch. The effect of starch cationization process on the morphological peculiarities of starch granules, as well as de­gree of crystallinity, was studied. The effect of cationization of starch on the structural characteristics of granules (degree of crystallinity-and-amorphism) at the general preservation of starch granules and physical and chemical properties (rheolog­ical and thermogravimetric) has been determined. A scientifically based, highly efficient method for cationization of starch N-(3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyl)-N,N,N-trimethylammonium chloride in an alkaline medium with the use of gelatinization inhibitors was developed allowing to obtain cationic starch with substitution degree of 0.01-0.06 mol/mol. The obtained cationic starch can be used in the pulp and paper, textile and other industry. The developed technology for production of chemically modified cationic starch has been successfully implemented at local enterprises.