Abstract: Today Russian researchers are starting to pay more attention to project management methods aimed at highlighting key points of efficient national economy state regulation. The authors of the research show that attempts to implement elements of project management into the agricultural sector have proved to be efficient, improved the investment environment in the region, raised the budget efficiency of applicable supportive measures but did not lead to the results that had been expected. The key issue here is the fact that there is no instrumental support of strategic document and project preparation which, in the first place, causes inharmony between indicators and resources' provisino as well as inconformity between forecasts at the federal, regional and municipal levels. In the course of the article the authors have applied the methods of theoretical and methodological generalization, monographic research, comparative evaluation, statistical analysis, and grouping method. The research results demonstrate that implementation of state agriculture development programs happen without relating to the food self-sufficiency and taking into account spacial features of the region and agricultural potential of manufacturers, many of the latter having a traditional specialisation that had been already formed during the planning period. All this predetermines a failure to achieve threshold goals of strategic development for certain sectors of the industrial program and creates the need to modernise goal-setting instruments related to the demand in an efficient approach to implementing the agricultural policy based on the project management model.

Keywords: portfolio of projects, agrarian economy, food independence, grocery approach, design model, forecasting, strategic planning, goal-setting, agriculture, project management