Аннотация:The Altai Territory is a major agricultural producer in Russia. However, the territory's agriculture has low productivity and its rural residents, low living standards. The region's official policy is aimed at creating agro-industrial clusters based on processing of agricultural produce, the logic of which is based upon producing primary farming produce to its processing. The authors propose a more effective option for improving the living standards in rural areas — the development of rural industry, in particular, science-intensive industry and, in the first place, small business development in the countryside (logic: from end-use industrial products to reorientation of agricultural production). A good example of the positive impact of science-intensive industry on the countryside is the activity of the biopharmaceutical firm Evalar, which has set up agricultural production of medicinal herbs within the framework of its production chain.