Factor-analytic approach to the latent structure of obstacles to the development of Ukraine’s agricultural sector

Abstract

The research problem is that a component-wise list of barriers (insufficient demand, financial constraints, weather conditions, shortages of materials/equipment, and labor) does not yield an integrated understanding of the hidden dimensions through which these obstacles manifest, interact, and change in intensity under shocks. The principal result is a stable two-factor configuration that captures two substantively distinct dimensions of obstacles. The first market institutional aggregates signals of insufficient demand and organizational/regulatory uncertainty and moves in antiphase to responses of “nothing constrains.” The second resource climatic financial accumulates shortages of materials/equipment, financial constraints, and the influence of weather conditions. The “labor shortage” indicator exhibits a transitional (cross-loading) position, with meaningful loadings on both dimensions, reflecting the simultaneous influence of organizational and security–resource factors. The temporal dynamics show a regime shift in 2022: dominance of the market-institutional dimension in the pre-crisis period gave way to an elevated role of resource climatic and financial constraints in 2023-2025. Anchored comparison of the factor indicators with aggregate financial outcomes and the share of loss-making enterprises confirms their diagnostic value: strengthening of the resource climatic financial dimension correlates with weaker results and a broader loss zone, whereas attenuation of the market institutional dimension aligns with shortterm “windows of opportunity” for particular subsectors. The scientific novelty lies in a statistically verified map of the “latent geometry” of obstacles that enables a shift from describing symptoms to identifying mechanisms and their links to financial outcomes. The practical significance is the possibility of dualchannel policy targeting: contracting instruments, insurance, and reduction of regulatory uncertainty for the market institutional dimension: resumption of supply logistics, access to working capital, and deployment of climate-resilient technologies — for the resource, climate, and financial dimension.