Downward tendency in potato production in the years 1980-1998 was a result of the declining of area of agricultural land and fluctuation in the crop production issued from the variation of the yields. The main reasons for reducing of a potato sown area include a decrease in the competitiveness of potatoes as a fodder, changes in the collectivized agriculture sector and the reduction in demand for potatoes from the processing industry.
The rapid development of agricultural law as a new branch in the Russian legal system is determined both by the radical transformation of the social and political system in Russia and the creation of new legal foundations for the activity of agricultural producers. This law, due to the characteristics and structure, is defined as a complex specialised branch of law, which forms a comprehensive system of related legal norms regulating agricultural social relations in the sphere of economic activity. Agricultural relations are of considerable social importance, which results in a situation when they become the subject of an independent, separate legal regulation, a special set of different integrated norms and legal institutions. At present the Russian agricultural law has its own legal foundations, which are characterised by a sufficiently broad scope and cover different aspects of activity of agricultural producers under market economy conditions. Legal institutions in agricultural law are unique in character not only due to their subject, but also the contents of objectives of legal regulations. In view of the rapid development of agrarian relations the author defines trends and prospects for further development of agricultural law in Russia as an independent branch within the Russian legal system.