The deep changes in the development of the Ukrainian rural sector under the influence of gaining political independence, carrying out agrarian and land reforms, full replacement of state power and phased reform of the administrative-territorial system are analyzed. It has been established that the rural sector of Ukraine covers two key components: the industrial-branch (primary production and technologically related industries) and socio-territorial (rural and small urban settlements with population, objects of social sphere and territory as spatial basis of primary production). Asymmetry of their development lies in the fact that the food complex enhances production, but this is not accompanied by an increase in living standards and quality of the rural population living environment. In recent years, the rural sector has a number of new challenges and acute problems that require in-depth research and development and implementation of measures to overcome asymmetry in its development based on a number of innovations. Among the innovations are the completion of the administrative-territorial system post-soviet reform, the gradual shift of the responsibility center for the development of the rural sector into the combined territorial and rural communities; the continuation of systemic safety methods implementation at primary production and completion farms at processing and food enterprises; Significant increase in the volume of local budgets as a result of management decentralization and the fiscal system, capitalization of natural resources and non-performing objects, introduction of local taxes; the active development of families and farms, and especially on lands that will be transferred to the jurisdiction of the united communities, and the revival of agricultural activity on abandoned lands grappling with the deserted villages, etc. The brainstorming and overcoming the consequences of destructive processes in rural areas, and especially in crisis zones, should ensure the implementation by united communities of measures to create favorable conditions for the placement of non-agrarian activities, the inclusion of small farms in production and distribution chains, the creation of professional mini-associations of food producers, agricultural production and service cooperatives for the purpose of labor-intensive production operations prompt execution, timely collection and sales of grown products, assistance in solving domestic problems of rural population, facilitating the accessibility of remote village  residents to basic services, etc. Areas of research in the rural sector are systematized, in the course of which implementation of the results will ensure the strengthening of sustainable development of rural areas. Among them: methodical recommendations for assessing the productive potential of rural communities and ensuring the increase of tax revenues to the budgets of the combined territorial communities, taking into account the availability of rural assets (natural resources, minerals, other objects) and their inclusion in the economic circulation; the development of conceptual foundations, the formation of economic mechanisms and tools for supporting families and farms, which will be organized on unoccupied agricultural lands, as well as on the basis of labor generations revitalization; improvement of existing mechanisms and tools for managing the development of the rural sector in order to increase the effectiveness of the new administrative-territorial organization system and self-organization of citizens; formation of an effective model of small farms involvement in the production of final food products and its promotion in production and distribution chains, etc.

Key words: rural sector, industrial-branch component, socio-territorial component, rural territories, challenges and problems, asymmetry and balanced development, united territorial and rural / domestic communities, depressive zones, family and farming farms.