European Research Studies Journal

3.
 
Discussion
The study showed that the state had endowed agriculture and the food industry with 
the most critical sectors. To study the degree of influence of agriculture and the food 
industry on the economic growth of Belarus, the relationship between the GDP growth 
rates and the growth rates of agri-food branches was investigated. For the factor model 
to be verified as much as possible, a third factor was introduced, which is the aggregate 
growth rate of all sectors of the economy minus agriculture and the food industry. 
Using the method of correlation regression analysis, it was checked which of the 
variables makes the most significant contribution to the GDP growth rate. The 
following conclusions were obtained: an increase in the rate of growth of production 
in agriculture by 1% leads to a rise in the rate of change of GDP by 0.0613%; an 
increase in the growth rate of food products by 1% leads to a rise in the GDP growth 
rate by 0.0271%. 
The state program of social and economic development until 2020 provides for an 
increase in livestock production in 2020 by 18.3% compared to 2015 and crop 
production by9.3%. Consequently, taking into account the existing structure of 
agriculture, in which livestock breeding occupies 54% and crop production 46%, the 

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Sviatlana Adashkevich 
805 
 
state has planned an increase in agriculture at the level of 14% for the five years, which 
corresponds to 1.7% of the annual growth. Based on the forecast indicators of the 
development of the industry and the resulting multiple regression model, it is easy to 
determine that if the hands of agricultural development are met, the republic will 
receive only 0.1% of GDP growth. As it can be seen, the branches of the agri-food 
sector do not significantly impact the economic growth rates of Belarus.
However, agriculture and food processing are unique industries. There are no other 
industries that can replace them. There is no human community that does not care 
about food. This process will always occur, even if Belarus takes a course towards 
decentralizing the agri-food sector one day. However, it should be recognized that 
today, when the republic is at the post-industrial stage of development, these sectors, 
while remaining factors in ensuring food security, are no longer factors of economic 
growth. There is an explanation for that. 
In theory, industry specialization is understood as a higher level of industry 
concentration than other industries' average parameters. The field initiatives have a 
higher share of products, the presence of certain advantages in this industry (Minakir, 
2019). In terms of their position in the structure of GDP, agriculture and the food 
industry are indeed among the leading sectors. In 2019, agriculture accounted for 
6.8%, food industry 6.2% in the structure of GDP. The food industry has been the 
largest in the last decade. From the point of view of gross indicators, the specialization 
of the economy is justified, which cannot be said based on the criteria of economic 
efficiency (Figure 1).