Reinforcement of the human resources potential in the agro-industrial complex is the base for solving import substitution problems. <...> This problem is impossible to solve without participation of government, providing functioning and continuous development of the system of professional agricultural education, which is an essential supplier of highly-qualified personnel for the labour market. <...> Nowadays there are a lot of problems, associated with the formation and development of the human resources potential in the agrarian sector of economy at the level of the country as well as at the level of the region (for example, in the Orel region). <...> There are the following main problems: catastrophic deficit of agrarian specialists with higher education, fluctuation movement of personnel and insufficiently effective system of their preparation. <...> Only 67.2% of agricultural organization managers have higher education, 24.9% have secondary vocational education. 47% 101 Ветнк агано наук, 6(69), 2017, http://dx.doi.org/10.15217/48484 of agricultural specialists have higher education, 43.2% of them have secondary vocational education. <...> The deficit of qualified personnel is about 80 thousand people. <...> The analysis of the human resources potential of agricultural organizations in the Orel region shows that only 46.2% of managers have higher professional education, a bit more than 40% have secondary vocational education. <...> The author considers a number of structural problems, existing in agrarian education. <...> There is insufficient financing for agrarian universities; slow modernization of educational programs content which doesn't meet the requirements of employers for the level of professional competence of graduates; high average age of academic and teaching staff, low degree of integration into the global academic space. <...> A special program, including set of measures, offered by the author, will allow to coordinate the interests of educational organizations, authorities and subjects of agroindustrial complex systematically. <...> Одними из основных проблем являются: катастрофический дефицит аграрных специалистов с высшим образованием, слабая закрепляемость кадров и недостаточно эффективная система их подготовки. <...> Только 67,2% руководителей сельскохозяйственных организаций имеют высшее образование, 24,9% - среднее профессиональное. 47% специалистов сельскохозяйственных организаций имеют высшее образование, 43,2% - среднее профессиональное образование. <...> Дефицит квалифицированных кадров составляет <...>