The farm (F) is an independent type of commodity agricultural enterprise that owns non-negotiable assets, land, labor and financial resources, and other material and technical means of farming. A rational and mutually agreed combination of these factors ensures the efficient functioning of agricultural enterprises.

It is established that the main land users are small farms, which concentrate 62.1% of agricultural land belonging to farms in general.

For the purpose of realization of production and economic activity, leased land massifs are used mainly. Thus, in the structure of land use, the share of leased agricultural land in 2016 accounts for: large and medium-sized farms – 98%, small ones – 74.4%.

The area of agricultural land, which is in use by small farms is a determining factor, which is decisive in choosing the direction of production and economic activity. Thus, business entities with a land area of up to 5 hectares specialize mainly in the production of livestock products. With an increase in the area of agricultural land, which is in the land use of small farms, there is a reorientation to the production of crop production.

It should be noted that a high level of profitability is characteristic of growing export-oriented crops, in particular sunflower. In this regard, the majority of farms in the southern and central regions of Ukraine are allocating large amounts of arable land under sunflower crops without observing the scientific foundations of agriculture. This circumstance calls into question the long-term prospect of implementation of production and economic activities of farms.

The main reason is the unsatisfactory level of material and technical support, as well as not large massifs of land resources, which prevents the use of widespread equipment. Most farms, due to insufficient level of their own financial resources, cannot provide the production process with appropriate technical means, mineral fertilizers and plant protection products. Currently, most agricultural enterprises purchase fertilizers due to the limited financial resources and, accordingly, make them within the limits of the minimum allowable standards, which does not allow to fully use the potential of increasing the productivity of grain crops.

By assessing the natural indices of plant production in comparison with agricultural enterprises, we can state that the yield of agricultural crops in this category of agricultural enterprises is significantly lower compared to the enterprises of the corporate sector of the agrarian economy as a whole.

It should be noted that crops that lead to depletion of soils (sunflower, rape, corn) are grown for many years, without taking into account the negative effects on the quality of the fields and their fertility. Due to short-term lease agreements and no definite conditions for the development of land law in Ukraine, long-term sustainable use of such a resource, as "soils", is not given enough attention.

Improving the condition of land and increasing the efficiency of their use is a large complex task that requires significant investments, both from the state and from farms. The problem of improving the use of land is reduced to the solution of such priority tasks, each including its own system of measures. In particular: protection of soils from erosion and other destructive processes; increase of soil fertility; more full use of economic soil fertility.

Key words: farms, land use, efficiency, fertility, state, profitability.