Introduction. Rural areas represent a significant strategic potential for the country’s sustainable growth, in the context of deteriorating environmental conditions in the industrialized regions a balanced state policy aimed at overcoming the difficult socio-economic situation is needed. The experience of developed countries shows the need for non-agricultural specialization based on the optimization of the use of economic potential, which not only contributes to sustainability in the conditions of external economic shocks, but also affects the quality of life of the population by creating new jobs and business infrastructure. The regulatory and legal documents, which are implemented in the field of integrated support for rural areas, are aimed at diversification, development of material and production base and infrastructure, while the goal of the legislator is also to strengthen the main specialization through the modernization of production equipment and the formation of transport and logistics relationships. Objective: to identify promising areas of diversification of the economy of territories with agricultural specialization on the example of Russian regions that will positively affect the use and development of their economic potential. Materials and methods. Analysis of statistics, system and situational approaches to the assessment of industry indicators in the subjects of the Russian Federation, socio-economic modeling. Results of research, discussion. The article presents a scientific and theoretical analysis of the basic concepts on the research problem, identified the key problems of socio-economic development of territories with agricultural specialization. The domestic experience of diversification of the economy of rural areas on the basis of infrastructure development is consedered. As a result, a model was proposed for diversifying the economy of territories with agricultural specialization, which can be adapted in the regions of Russia. Conclusion. Territories with agricultural specialization should be developed taking into account the needs of the population and the business environment, the main and most promising direction of economic diversification is engineering and transport infrastructure.