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With the advent of the era of big data, data mining methods show their powerful information mining ability in various fields, seeking the association information hidden in the data, which is convenient for people to make scientific decisions. This paper analyses the butterfly effect in the agricultural product industry chain from the perspective of producer and consumer by using multidimensional time and space theory and proposes a new price forecasting method. We consider that the price change of agricultural products is not only affected by the balance of market supply and demand but also by the factors of time and space. Taking the pig industry chain of Sichuan Province as an example, this paper explores and excavates the data from 2010 to 2020 in the time dimension. Interestingly, we found that the price changes in pork in the market are generally highly correlated with the prices of slaughtered pigs, piglets a few weeks ago and the prices of multiple feed a few months ago. Based on the precise time-space factors, we improved the price forecasting model, greatly improved the accuracy of price prediction, and proved the effectiveness of multidimensional spatiotemporal association mining. The research in this paper is helpful to establish a brand-new agricultural product price prediction theory, which is of great significance to the development of the agricultural economy and global poverty alleviation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citation: Andric Gusavac B., Stanojevic M., Cangalovic M. (2019): Optimal treatment of agricultural land - special multi-depot vehicle routing problem. Agricultural Economics - Czech, 65: 569-578. Abstract: This paper describes a problem of optimal agricultural land treatment using aviation. The studied problem consists of determining the optimal routes for a given set of aircraft used for chemical treatment of arable agricultural land divided into parcels. This NP (nondeterministic polynomial time) problem is represented on a graph and a mixed integer mathematical programming model of the problem is formulated. This mathematical model is a specific variant of the multi-depot vehicle routing problem where a min-cost plan for the transportation of a homogeneous product (chemicals used for land treatment) from different supply locations (airfields) to different demand locations (agricultural parcels) should be generated. Some specifics of the agricultural land chemical treatment are described in the paper and the following specific conditions are taken into consideration: each parcel is treated only by one way of treatment and one aircraft; for each aircraft its chemical and fuel reservoir capacities are sufficient to serve its route. The complexity of the problem and the impossibility to obtain exact solutions for larger dimensions of the problem led to the formulation of a special heuristics which is presented in this paper. Numerical experiments are successfully conducted for larger problem dimensions and results are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to highlight the importance of climate and environmental challenges for agricultural economics and policy. Empirical research based on the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method determined the average technical efficiency and scale efficiency of farms in the European Union in total and in economic size classes in the period 2004–2020. The results indicate that agriculture is generally characterised by high technical efficiency and scale efficiency. Analysis by economic size classes of farms, defined by the standard sum of their agricultural output, shows that the relationship between the scale of production and technical efficiency of farms is U-shaped. The highest technical efficiency and scale efficiency are characterised by small, large and very large farms economic classes. Economies of scale shift the burden of food production to large farms, which provide food security and are technically efficient but excessively burdensome for the climate and the environment. Small farms produce environmentally friendly food but on a small scale. Therefore, increasing the technical efficiency of medium-sized farms can contribute to more sustainable food production that meets both food security and climate and environmental objectives. The Common Agricultural Policy 2023–2027 provides greater access to financial support for moderate-scale farms and farms undertaking ecosystem restoration activities. This may affect the strength and direction of the relationship between farm scale and productivity, including technical efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy constraints and market incentives have made it an important foundation for developing countries such as China to develop agricultural green transition policies. This study employed the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2003 to 2022 and the three-dimensional framework of ‘institutions, technology, and marketisation’ to probe whether environmental regulation constraints or expected economic revenue incentives play a critical role in China’s current agriculture development. Whether the green transition of agriculture depends on environmental regulatory policy constraints and expected economic revenue incentives is related to the level of agricultural technology development and market development. Technology and market play a positive role in the agricultural green transition by enabling the realisation of agricultural green production and the realisation of the agricultural green market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) is a professional and social institution whose basic mission is to influence the scientific level of research activities and education in its field of competence, to take care of its continuous development and to effectively popularize the acquired scientific knowledge. Within the CAAS and its Department of Forestry, the Commission of Forest Economics has been operating for a long time, focusing on forest and wood economics and policy. A total of 11 research directions are defined in the forthcoming Concept of Research, Development and Innovation of the Ministry of Agriculture for the period 2023+, the professional part of which is covered and guaranteed by the CAAS. The following directions are included in forestry and wood processing: "Forestry and related industries" and the direction "Forest and agricultural economics and policy" integrated with agriculture. The paper briefly describes the scientific focus of forest and wood economics and policy in this context and especially the activities of the Commission of Forest Economics of the Department of Forestry of the CAAS. In the temporal and factual context, it mentions the published monograph "Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences and a Quarter-Century of the Commission of Forest Economics". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement is an important free trade agreement in the Asia Pacific region. The implementation of RCEP is greatly significant for ensuring the effective supply of agricultural products to member states. On the basis of the analysis of the agricultural product trade structure among China, Australia and New Zealand since 2000, we summarise in this article the potential consequences of tariff reduction for the agricultural products among the three countries under the RCEP framework. The Global Trade Analysis Project model has been used to analyse the effects of RCEP on the macroeconomic indicators, agricultural products trade and domestic agricultural output of the three countries. The research findings indicate that agricultural product trade among the three countries has grown rapidly since 2000. The results of the Global Trade Analysis Project simulations revealed that implementing RCEP will foster macroeconomic growth in the three countries. China's imports of beef and dairy products and wheat from Australia and New Zealand will substantially increase, and China's domestic production of this agricultural sector will decrease. Furthermore, India's potential participation in RCEP will further affect China's imports and exports of grain. These findings could guide the policymakers in the three countries in designing future agricultural production and trade strategies according to the different scenarios of international trade among the three countries and considering the potential of India joining. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Th e paper deals with the LTPD (Lot Tolerance Percent Defective) single sampling plans when the remainder of rejected lots is inspected. Th ere are considered two types of the LTPD plans - for inspection by variables and for inspection by variables and attributes (all items from the sample are inspected by variables; the remainder of rejected lots is inspected by attributes). Th ese plans were created by the author of this paper and published in the Statistical Papers. Th ese new plans were compared with the corresponding Dodge-Romig LTPD plans for the inspection by attributes from the economic point of view. From the results of the numerical investigations, it follows that under the same protection of consumer the LTPD plans for the inspection by variables are in many situations more economical than the corresponding Dodge-Romig attribute sampling plans (saving of the inspection cost is 80% in any cases). The dependence of the saving of the inspection cost on the acceptance sampling characteristics is analyzed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the dynamic simulation of the possible development scenarios of small farmers. The model is based on the official data sources but also on the qualitative research of small farmers. The modelling structure reflects the specifics of the examined field and personal and social specifics of small farmers. For the purposes of the analysis, the business model describes the value creation in the small and individual farms, thereafter the model is extended into the dynamic simulation model and the selected scenarios of development are simulated. The analysis shows the impact of the current setup in the field. Despite the fact that the paper contains the optimistic scenarios, a simple change of parameters leads to an unsustainable situation. The pessimistic scenarios grow from the realistic conditions when the parameters reflect the recent period settings. This clearly depicts the influence of the weak market position of the farmers and advocates the diversification tendencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The financial structure of enterprises is constantly a subject of research of many academics. Despite the fact that many scientific studies deal with this area of financial management, the research is mostly focused on industrial companies. In our opinion, there is a wide scope for research into the segment of agricultural enterprises and their financial structure, as well. The aim of the paper is, therefore, to analyse the direction and intensity of action of the selected internal corporate factors and external factors of the macro-environment on the financial structure of Czech and Slovak agricultural enterprises and to identify differences in the action of these factors between the Czech and Slovak companies. The methods of multiple regression and correlation analysis have been used as the main research methods. The achieved results pointed at the fact that in addition to the internal corporate factors, the external factors of the macro-environment were also statistically highly significant for certain groups of agricultural enterprises. The paper also points to some diff erences in the direction and intensity of action of the chosen factors on the examined level of debt -- the total indebtedness and the credit indebtedness of the studied agricultural enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper complements a new line of research that includes the firm heterogeneity in trade models. The central idea of this research is that only the largest and most efficient firms are capable of exporting. However, the empirical evidence has confirmed that a large number of SMEs is also involved in internationalisation. Given this context, the aim of the paper is to analyse the influence of collaborative networks between firms and institutions as an alternative mechanism to the small size of the majority of the firms in the agri-food industry. To this end, there was used a longitudinal panel between 1994 and 2012 comprising a sample of 342 Spanish firms involved in the business sectors of the food, meat, drink and tobacco industries, and a dynamic Heckman-Probit model was implemented. The first stage studies the positive influence of collaborative networks in firms' decision to export and the second stage analyses the eff ect of cooperation mechanisms on export intensity. The results show a positive eff ect of business cooperation networks in both stages suggesting that SMEs can overcome the barrier of their small size in their internationalisation process through other mechanisms, such as collaborative networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is devoted to an analysis of the development of agrarian farms in Visegrad Group (V4) countries, primarily in terms of results and the most important production inputs of production factors and their efficiency in the period from 2004 to 2013 based on the EU Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN). The results of the analysis show that if farms in the V4 countries want to achieve the same performance as developed countries, they must invest more in purchasing intensification factors and adjust the structure of assets production specification. It will be necessary to stop the reduction in the numbers of livestock and to strive for growth in gross farm income, mainly through the processing of agricultural raw materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the paper is to analyse the potential for the innovation of cross border clusters from the sector of agriculture. The methodology which is used is the research of intellectual property (IP) of the clusters' members and clusters by using a specific questionnaire for clusters in two countries: Hungary and Serbia. The analysis of results shows a high level of innovativeness within the clusters' members and the need of protection of their intellectual achievements. The similar results were achieved in both countries. They show that the IP rights at the level of clusters should be protected as the cross border trademark and the name of origin. The scientific contribution of this paper is to introduce the concept of the joint cross border IP protection for two or more clusters from different countries which might be applied across the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural subsidy has attracted more and more attention. This paper captures the effects of subsidy (including area subsidy and price subsidy) on the total sown areas of crops based on the assumption that subsidy has both stimulating effects and inhibiting effects. Different from the prior studies, this paper considers the impacts of the farmland constraint and demand elasticity and some interesting conclusions are achieved. Firstly, a stimulating effect increases crop sown areas while an inhibiting effect reduces them. Secondly, the output efficiency of farmland as well as the demand elasticity has a major impact on the government subsidy. Besides, the capacity constraint makes thing difference and the government should choose between the areas subsidy and price subsidy under different conditions. Finally, this paper offers an empirical test on the conclusions by adopting the Chinese agricultural statistical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reductions of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions are an essential objective of the European Union (EU) to achieving the reduction target by 20% by 2020. Along with energy consumption and agriculture, trade has a diverse impact on climate change. International trade usually negatively affects the environment, while the influence of intra-industry trade is more favourable. The paper investigates the impact of energy use, agriculture, and intraindustry trade on environmental pollution in EU countries using panel data for the period 2000-2014. The research frames the theoretical hypothesis that describing the relationship between agricultural intra-industry trade and climate change. The assumptions are confirmed by panel fixed effects, and Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) estimations, and the panel cointegration test. The empirical results have supported by the literature, and all variables used in this study are stationary applying panel unit root test. Results show that agricultural intra-industry trade, renewable energy is negatively correlated with climate change, confirming the less pollutant hypothesis, while economic growth and agricultural productivity induce environmental problems. This study confirms the theoretical hypotheses explaining the effect of intra-industry trade for agricultural products as well as the impacts of renewable energy use, agricultural land productivity, and economic growth on CO2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The redesign of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) allows for more room to address issues related to stabilising farmers' income and developing their viability in areas facing natural constraints (ANC). Maintaining income levels, developing farm economies in rural areas, and encouraging competitive agricultural practises are the challenges facing the new CAP. ANCs in the Czech Republic are characterised by a lower level of income compared to areas outside ANCs and their generally prevailing specialisation in livestock production, which has been facing a relatively turbulent development in the last decade. The main aim of this paper is to evaluate the economic viability with regard to the level of natural disadvantage and with regard to farm specialisation. The database of Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) was used for assessment; the authors built the Farm Economic Viability indicator, which is based on modified Farm Net Value Added. The differences between the farm groups were tested through analysis of variance. Significantly lower viability was found in ANCs compared to farms outside ANCs. Field crops achieved significantly higher levels, both in and outside ANCs. The most threatened group of farms are grazing livestock in ANCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One constraint when dealing with food security problems is the absence of measurement tools that allow for mitigation strategies to be targeted on each region individually. The elasticities can be used as a good exploratory instrument of food security. This paper presents a proposal for measuring the food insecurity dimensions of access and stability, integrating the values of the different kinds of elasticities. The methodology was applied to Spain, using data from nine groups of protein-rich foods of animal origin during the 2004-2015 period in 17 regions. The results suggest that, as regards foods rich in animal proteins, Navarra and Galicia are the regions with the highest food insecurity, and pork meat is the most insecure food product. Comparisons can be carried out between and within regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to investigate the impact of land conversion from rice farming to oil palm plantations on the socio-economic aspects of ex-migrants in the South Sumatra tidal swamp, Indonesia. Land conversion from rice farming to oil palm plantations is a form of adaptation for ex-migrant farmers and will increase food deficits in Indonesia. Ex-migrant farmers initially cultivated food crops with conventional technology. This pattern has been changing, which have led to the formation of two large groups of farms, namely rice-based farms implementing mechanisation, and oil palm-based plantations. The results showed that changes from rice farming to oil palm plantations did not make the economy of farm households better. Between the two groups of farmers, there is no difference in arable land, the labour allocation for agriculture and the farmers' income. In addition, there is not much difference between farmers' participation in on-farm and out-farm activities. The area of arable land owned, the husbands'age, and family size variables are determinants of farmers' choice to participate in other jobs activities and influence farmers' income. Thus, changes in crops from rice to oil palm have no impact on cultivation area, labour allocation, income, on-farm and out-farm activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The supply of fast, accessible and high-quality information to individual users is the key aspect of information assurances of the agricultural sector. Th is aspect is closely related to the so-called information need. The paper aims to evaluate the current state of the information needs and information support and their impacts on small farms in the Czech Republic. There is a strong necessity to improve the economic performance of farms in the Czech Republic. Moreover, the need for the introduction of new ICT in farming and farm management has rapidly increased at present. In farming, the ICT directly supports the operational agricultural activities and it can also serve as an interactive and flexible tool for monitoring the progress of the farm economic performance. The analysis of the current state of the issue of information needs and dispositions among Czech farms was based on the questionnaire survey. We obtained 165 correctly filled answers from agricultural enterprises. Survey results are analysed with descriptive statistics, frequency tables, the clustering analysis and the correlation analysis. The results show that with 95% probability: (1) The level of the information needs is related to the current state of the ICT and the decision support system at the farm, (2) The influence of the information need level to the level of new technologies usage was not confirmed, (3) Legislation issues represent a crucial part of the information needs of agricultural subjects, (4) Large enterprises with more than 500 ha have a much better level of the information support than the companies with fewer hectares, (5) Companies with less than three employees face problems with their information support, (6) Czech farms in average use advanced ICT and information systems, and (7) The farmer's decision-making is not strongly facilitated through the ICT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the background of the Chinese Household Contract Responsibility System (HCRS), farmers have to pay higher transaction costs and encounter a huge trading risk if they engage in agricultural production only through the market transaction. Since the special properties of agricultural production limit the formation and development of agricultural enterprises, farmer cooperative economy organizations with the main functional characteristics of transaction coordination begin to flourish. By building a new classical economics model, this paper demonstrates the theoretical assertion that the generation of a farmer cooperative economy organization is accompanied by the evolution of the division of labour, the improvement of farmers' effectiveness and the development of agricultural specialization. Furthermore, this paper does an empirical analysis with the micro-survey data to verify this theoretical assertion. Therefore, this article effectively explains the generation condition of a farmer cooperative economy organization and the internal mechanism of how it promotes the development of agricultural specialization. So this paper provides a strong theoretical and practical evidence for the development of a farmer cooperative economy organization and agricultural specialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Italian farms have an average surface lower than 10 hectares and they are predominately scattered in the upland rural areas. The most important aspect of small family farms is to protect the rural environment against the socio-economic marginalization of rural territories and reducing the out-migration from the countryside as well. Since the 1960s, the European Union has arranged a microeconomic survey on a sample of farms aimed at estimating the impact of the Common Agricultural Policy strategies on farmers called the Farm Accountancy Data Network or the FADN. The purpose of the analysis was to assess by a quantitative approach using the FADN dataset the technical, economic and allocative efficiency in Italian family farms over the time 2000-2012. In particular, the aim of the paper has been to investigate if the legal typology of property has influenced the efficiency of Italian farms. Some findings have pointed out that the co-operatives and family farms during the five year time 2008-2012 have had the same level of efficiency. Italian small farms smaller than 5 hectares need adequate financial supports allocated by the II. pillar of the Common Agricultural Policy and these subsides are pivotal in particular towards family farms located in the upland and hilly areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses new structured financial products in agricultural market with the aim to gain in the declining trends. Th ere are presented the reverse outperformance and the capped reverse outperformance certificates from the point of view of their investors and provided detailed descriptions of the profit functions in the analytical form. It is shown that the payoff of these certificates is an engineered from a combination of the traditional financial instrument and derivative products, especially the vanilla options. Further, there are developed formulas for pricing of these certificates and specified the conditions under which the issuer is profitable in the primary market. Also the profitability for the individual investor at the future trade date is presented. Several certificates for these types of certificates associated with the soybean futures contracts are designed and compared with the best results for the investor. The presented approach is based on the soybean options contracts traded on the Chicago Board of Trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural land is an important natural resource and the wealth of each country; in addition it is one of the main production factors, especially for the agricultural businessmen. That is a reason that state law makers adopt the legal regulations which are able to protect this unique natural resource and prefer using the land mainly for the agricultural purposes. The Slovak law makers have followed also such objectives by adoption of the Law No. 140/2014 Coll. on the acquisition of ownership of agricultural land and amending and supplementing certain laws. The paper analyses the economic and legal impacts of this law on the agricultural market in Slovakia with the regard to the presented land protection as the objective of the new legal regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to assess the impact of subsidies from the Rural Development Programme of the Czech Republic for the years 2007-2013 (RDP) on the technical inefficiency and the efficiency of Czech agricultural holdings. An unbalanced panel includes 454 Czech farms and 2103 observations for years 2007-2013. The Parametric Stochastic Frontier Analysis is used to assess the technical inefficiency and efficiency. A "true" fixed effects model with RDP subsidies explaining the variance of the inefficiency term is estimated. The results are ambiguous. On one hand, the RDP subsidies contributed to the decrease of variance of the inefficiency term, but on the other, the effect is statistically significant only at 90% level of significance. Therefore, we further tested the medians of inefficiency (efficiency) which are lower (higher) in the subsidized farms. We concluded that there are statistically significant differences depending on whether the farm received the RDP subsidies or not. However, we suggest a further examination of the particular projects using the efficiency of investments indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is the prediction of financial distress (default of payment or insolvency) of 250 agriculture business companies in the EU from which 62 companies defaulted in 2014 with respect to lag of the used attributes. From many types of classification models, there was chosen the Logistic regression, the Support vector machines method with the RBF ANOVA kernel, the Decision Trees and the Adaptive Boosting based on the decision trees to acquire the best results. From the results, it is obvious that with the increasing distance to the bankruptcy, there decreases the average accuracy of the financial distress prediction and there is a greater difference between the active and distressed companies in terms of liquidity, rentability and debt ratios. The Decision trees and Adaptive Boosting offer a better accuracy for the distress prediction than the SVM and logit methods, what is comparable to the previous studies. From the total of 15 accounting variables, there were constructed classification trees by the Decision Trees with the inner feature selection method for the better visualization, what reduces the full data set only to 1 or 2 attributes: ROA and Long-term Debt to Total Assets Ratio in 2011, ROA and Current Ratio in 2012, ROA in 2013 for the discrimination of the distressed companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Listed companies in the agribusiness sector of the stock exchange play a key role in driving the economic system of Thailand. They have an important role in terms of being the producers of agricultural commodities by covering all products from the upstream to downstream. The performance measurements of listed companies contain important information for forecasting the trends of agricultural production and yield. The paper studied and considered much of the literature on the performance measurement of organizations to look for relative variables and the optimal methodology. The study used panel data from 2011-2014, which collected the listed annual companies' statements. The aim of the study was to employ the Slacks Based Measure context-dependent Data Envelopment Analysis (SBM context-dependent DEA) for evaluating the efficiency in Decision Making Units (DMUs). The SBM context-dependent DEA was used to measure the performance of listed companies by employing attractiveness and progress scores. The results showed that when a listed company has a higher attractiveness and lower progress score, it has a better performance than its competitors and does not need to improve its efficiency. Therefore, the empirical results of the study can help farmers and governments to realize the trends of agricultural productivity and also help the listed companies to understand the characteristics of their competitors, leading to improvements in their organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Th e paper provides a new explanation for the existence of sharecropping in agriculture from the perspective of organizational economics. Similar to a multinational enterprise's decision of whether to enter a joint venture or to choose a wholly owned subsidiary, we can see sharecropping as a joint venture and a fixed rent contract as a wholly owned subsidiary when we stand in the tenant's position. Our analysis shows that when the landlord has a strong enough comparative advantage in exerting one type of effort, he/she tends to choose the share contract. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work aims to investigate whether and for which products the Campania region, as compared to other Italian regions, has managed to exploit the opportunities resulting from the gradual opening of MTC (Mediterranean third countries) markets which took place following the 1995 Euro-Mediterranean Conference in Barcelona. The results obtained through the use of a relative specialisation index show that Campania, compared to other Italian regions, enjoys a competitive advantage resulting from relative specialisation in the sale of processed and preserved fruit and vegetables and of bakery and flour products on MTC markets. Of great interest is the result, that the performance recorded by Campania with reference to the MTCs regarding the production of processed and preserved fruit and vegetables did not entail the repositioning of the same region on other European markets. Ultimately, the results highlight a strong specialisation and competitiveness of Campania in the production of processed and preserved fruit and vegetables and how the region has managed to fully exploit the gradual opening of MTC markets positioning itself on the markets and without being affected by the other main markets of MTC competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The draft Strategic plan of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the Czech Republic has provoked the displeasure of many entrepreneurs in agriculture due to the redistributive payments, to which 23% of the total volume of direct payments will be directed instead of the originally planned 10%. According to the creators of the Strategic plan, this should support the fairer distribution of payments, respecting the benefits arising from the scale of production of large companies. Critics of the plan claim that operating subsidies are already degressive and fear an adverse impact on medium-sized companies, which, given the structure of the companies in the Czech Republic, will affect a large part of agriculture. This article aims to identify the farm size for which direct payments will be reduced and the likely degree of the impact on the farm economy. Our results suggest that the new payment system will lead to a reduction in direct payments for farms larger than 313 ha and, from a farm size of 873 ha, direct payments will fall below 85% of the average, which may cover around 50% of the agricultural land in the Czech Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cooperative movement in Poland has a long but difficult history, which has caused farmers to have an aversion to cooperatives. Nonetheless, in the early 1990s, the first farmers' cooperative marketing organizations, which were called agricultural producer groups, appeared in the market. These groups are bottom-up, voluntary organizations the primary purpose of which is to jointly sell their members' output. In this paper, it is investigated why the new forms of governance, namely cooperative arrangements, were chosen, and we evaluate the implications of these choices on the market success of these groups. Empirical data were collected from 62 producer groups in one Polish province. We found that the groups were typically functioning as associations, unions, and limited liability companies. The factors that had an impact on the choices made were the number of members and the specific investment per member. Additionally, if the initial investment level was low, not only set-up and operational costs but also tax considerations played a role in the decision. Therefore, we argue that the new bottom-up cooperatives, which are theoretically suitable when the start-up capital is high or the number of members is large, will gradually be recognized and accepted in the market despite the fact that these cooperatives have a "bad reputation" caused by the socialist legacy. The new cooperative development trend confirms this argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contribution is focused on the food problem in the least developed countries, on the chosen areas where the overall situation is the most problematic. It deals with Burundi, belonging to the low income food deficit countries with one of the world's lowest rates of the gross domestic product per capita. The paper defines the food security situation in the global connection, representing a wide complex of economic, social, demographic, technologic and political aspects of production, distribution, shift and consumption of foodstuffs. The inter-related causes of food insecurity are mainly the long lasting civil wars, a limited access to land, environmental degradation, climatic shocks and the rapid population growth resulting from the high birth rates and the return of refugees. Subsistence crops and livestock products represent the main source of income for most households. The performance of these subsectors is very low, and generates chronic food deficits. Agriculture is thus the key sector in the predominantly rural economies and there is still a significant room for growth, diversification, increasing productivity and improving competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fall of the communist system in Central Europe was followed by dynamic social and economic change that also had its clear impact on the food sector. One of the key factors shaping the contemporary condition of the agricultural sector in region has been change of ownership, with the collapse of the nationalised sector and restitution of property to former owners. The work presented here considers the main directions of changes and assessment of selected economic processes ongoing in the farming sector over the last quarter-century throughout the region under consideration. This analysis may be further broken down in relation to the three suggested phases of change, i.e. transformation, integration and polarisation. The work took in five countries of the former Eastern Bloc, i.e. the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hazelnut is a product with high nutritional and economic value. In maintaining the quality value of hazelnut, the classification process is of great importance. In the present day, the quality classification of hazelnuts and other crops is performed in general manually, and so it is difficult and costly. Performing this classification with modern agricultural techniques is much more important in terms of quality. This study was based on a model intended to detect hazelnut quality. The model is about the establishment of an artificial intelligence-based classification system that can detect the hidden defects of hazelnuts. In the developed model, the visuals used in the dataset are divided into training and test groups. In the model, hazelnuts are divided into 5 classes according to their quality using AlexNet architecture and modern deep learning (DL) techniques instead of traditional hazelnut classification methods. In this model developed based on artificial intelligence, a very good approach was presented with the accurate classification of 99%. Moreover, the values regarding precision and recall were also determined at 98.7% and 99.6%, respectively. This study is important in terms of becoming widespread information technology use and computer-assisted applications in the agricultural economics field such as product classification, quality, and control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the reform and opening-up, the disparity between Chinese rural economy and the overall national economic development has already become the key constraint for further development of the national economy. In order to increase the farmers' income and to promote rural economic development, the efforts of China's budgetary and financial policies to support agriculture have been strengthened year by year. However, it lacks an accurate and effective assessment to evaluate the effects of China's fiscal and financial policies supports for agriculture. This paper proposes to estimate and measure the effects of China's fiscal and financial supports for agriculture utilizing the Chinese provincial panel data on the basis of the latest spatial panel econometric method. The results show that since China intensified the fiscal and financial support in 2004, the direct effects of fiscal and financial supports for agriculture have improved, but the spatial spillover effects have turned from positive to negative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents key results regarding a possible reform of the Common Agricultural Policy direct payments, based on a scenario analysis by the CAPRI (Common Agricultural Policy Regionalized Impact) modelling system. Combining aggregate programming models at the NUTS 2 level with a global spatial multi-commodity model, it enables depicting the impacts of different policy and economic scenarios from regional to the global scale. The paper discusses simulated impacts on farm income and agricultural markets from implementing the European flat rate hectare payment corrected for the purchasing power disparities across the Member States while reducing the overall budget outlays for direct payments by 50% and dismantling the remaining coupled support to ruminants. The results are an outcome of a comparative static analysis against a reference scenario which assumes the Health Check policy in 2020. The model results suggest a drop of the agricultural gross value added by 9% at the aggregate EU27 level compared to the reference scenario. Impacts differ between the Member States groups, Member States and regions, depending on the share of premiums in the income from agriculture, specialization and competitiveness of production. The largest reduction is projected for the suckler cow herd, dropping by 6% compared to the reference scenario. The drop is caused by removing the coupled support and affecting mostly the herds in Spain and France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural land market is usually defined as the purchase of agricultural land. In the most of the European countries, the land rental transactions have received the dominant position in the land market. Therefore, the land rental transactions are included into the agricultural land market analysis. The decision processes of market subjects are often influenced by the law. On the one hand, there is the law regulating the value of agricultural land from the various points of view. on the other hand, there are some statutes stipulating the rental legal rules. The objective of this paper is to analyse the influence of the law on the behaviour of market subjects in the agricultural land market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the effects of the performance of the OECD national economies and agricultural sectors on the farm producer support for the years 1986 to 2009. The study is complementary to the large amount of microeconomic research that highlights the importance of support to agricultural industry. Data for the analysis are taken from the OECD Producer and Consumer Support Estimates database and the World Bank World Development Indicators 2010 database. The Producer Support Estimate -- PSE (expressed in absolute value, in percent of the total farm revenues and per 1 hectare of agricultural land) was taken as the dependent variable, whereas the selected indicators describing the performance of the economies (e.g. GDP per capita, unemployment, fiscal balance, government debt, government expense and tax revenue, exchange rate, agriculture share in GDP and employment, agricultural raw materials exports and imports) were the independent variables. Utilizing these variables, a simple linear regression analysis was conducted and resulted in many significant associations. In the period analyzed, there was a wide gap between the most and least farm supporting countries in terms of the annual average percentage PSE and the PSE per hectare. Substantial differences between the countries in the variability of the PSE over the time occurred. The empirical results obtained from the regression models reveal, among other, that when the countries were becoming richer, the percentage PSE was generally decreasing. Mixed results were obtained for the relationship between the percentage PSE and unemployment, as in some countries it was negative, while in the others positive. Expansionary fiscal policy exerted opposite effects on the PSE in different countries. Labour productivity in agriculture was inversely correlated with the percentage PSE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the place of Slovak agriculture in the European Union and with the implementation of the strategy of the competitiveness growth of Slovak agrarian producers. The paper compares the disparities in the utilisation of production factors with the selected EU countries, identifies the causes of unfavourable position of Slovakia's agriculture and also describes some impacts of crisis and disparities in utilising production factors in businesses operating under production conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study is to analyse the short and long-term relationships between the world oil prices (Europe Brent Spot Price and West Texas Intermediate Spot Price) and the agricultural commodity prices (Wheat, Corn and Soybeans). The analysis is based upon the data set covering the monthly period of 1990.01-2014.05. According to the Johansen co-integration tests results, there are no long-run relationships between each agricultural commodity prices and world oil prices at the 5% significance level. On the other hand, according to the results of the Granger causality tests, there are uni--directional causality relationships from the Europe Brent and West Texas Intermediate oil prices to Wheat at the 1% and 5% significance level respectively, to Corn at the 1% and 1% significance level respectively and to Soybeans at the 1% and 5% significance level respectively. No causality relationship from the agricultural commodity prices to world the oil prices has been observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural output in developing countries still represents a substantial part of the GDP. This ratio has actually increased in some areas such as the Latin America. As such, there is an increasing importance of microfinance institutions (MFIs) focusing on the activities associated with agriculture and encouraging entrepreneurship in agriculture and in the rural communities in general. The contribution of microfinance institutions consists mainly in providing special-purpose loans, usually without collateral. However, questions exist as to the magnitude and the adequate level of risk of providing micro-credit loans in relation to the interest rates being charged. We review two main approaches to setting interest rates in the MFIs. One approach takes the view that interest rates should be set at a high level due to the excessive risk that these institutions undertake. The second approach is to convince the public of the possibility of reducing these rates through cost savings, increased efficiency, and sharing best practice, etc. Subsequently we econometrically analyse the impact of macroeconomic factors on the microfinance interest rates in Latin America and the Caribbean. We show that these results depend on the chosen indicator of interest rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to assess the situation and development of Czech agriculture by the production and economic ratios of a sample of farms. The development is evaluated using a database of farms from the Czech Republic since 2000, divided by the share of land included in the LFA. The year 2011 revealed a significant improvement in economic indicators over the previous year. A positive profit appeared in 95% of enterprises and economic results approached the results of 2007. An important trend is the reduction in the number of workers, when in 2011 the number of workers was equal to 70% to that in 2000, while labour productivity is increasing annually by an average of 7%. In the structure of production, the average farm revealed a revenue growth of crop production, the revenue from livestock production was declining, although the opposite trend appeared in mountain areas. In all categories of farms, there is a growing dependence on subsidies. Although the year 2011 was the second most productive since 2000, the profit after deducting subsidies was reached by 13% of farms only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agrarian trade of the Czech Republic and Slovakia has undergone very significant changes in the period since the break-up of Czechoslovakia up to the present, which have influenced its commodity and territorial structure. The process of dividing the state, building a new business structure and the EU accession influenced the current form of Czech and Slovak agricultural trade and also particularly the competitiveness of Czech and Slovak agricultural and foodstuff products in relation to the EU market and also in relation to the world market. The process of transformation of agricultural production and trade in both countries has also affected their relationships. For this reason, the primary objective of this paper is to highlight the changes that have occurred in relation to the Czech and Slovak agricultural trade performance development -- and in particular the changes in the mutual export and import operations are analysed. During the period 1994-2010, agricultural exports from the Czech Republic to Slovakia became considerably more dynamic than those in the opposite direction. Czech agricultural and foodstuff products have gradually established themselves and have gained comparative advantages over Slovak agrarian production. As a result of this development, a gradual increase of the negative balance of Slovak agricultural trade has occurred in relation to the Czech Republic. Since the Slovak agrarian sector has in recent years significantly decreased its own production capacity, in the future a continuation of the current trend can be expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presented paper investigates the technical efficiency of small dairy farmers in using the stochastic production frontier function approach. The study reveals that building the supply chain can increase the efficiency of dairy farmers, as the milk producers who are part of a cooperative supply chain experienced a higher technical efficiency as compared to those who do not follow the modern supply chain practices. The milk producers in the supply chain are found better crisis managers as their inefficiency is the least attributed to their own decisions. The possession of the crossbred livestock, schooling of the manager and the institutional finance have been found affecting the efficiency of the dairy farmers positively and significantly. The study recommends the expansion in the supply chain network of the cooperative milk societies for enhancing the efficiency and profitability of the dairy sector along with the provision of more crossbred livestock and an easy availability of finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural growth is closely associated with sustainable economic development. This is especially true from the perspective of developing countries, such as India and Pakistan, where significant portions of the labour force are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. This study analysed the impact of macroeconomic policy (i.e. monetary policy) on employment, food inflation, and agricultural growth by analysing to what extent monetary policy is effective in controlling food price inflation, the effect of contractionary monetary policy on the agricultural sector's employment and productivity, and the extent of monetary policy transmission to money market rates and 10-year interest rates. We did so by applying a factor-augmented vector autoregressive model proposed by Bernanke et al. (2005) to agricultural data from 1995 and 1996 to 2016 for India and Pakistan, respectively. We found that tight monetary policy significantly reduced food inflation and agricultural production while increasing the rural unemployment rate. Short-term and 10-year interest rates increased owing to the contractionary monetary policies pursued by both countries. An inclusive monetary policy whereby policymakers work alongside governments to achieve price stabilisation and reasonable employment rates is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inputs used in agriculture play asymmetric roles during the production process. Growth inputs, i.e. water, nutrients, seed and soil environment, become a part of the biological growth of plants, whereas facilitating inputs, i.e. labour, capital and pesticides, help regulate the functions of growth inputs from outside of the plants. This insight about the asymmetric role of agricultural inputs has been incorporated into agricultural economics on the basis of agronomic principles of crop production. The objective of this study was to analyse the effect of facilitating inputs on the technical efficiency of growth inputs. This analysis has been carried out semi-parametrically by employing the double bootstrap procedure on farm household level data from Pakistan. The results indicate that pesticides, capital and family labour scale up the technical efficiency of the growth inputs, whereas hired labour significantly scales down this efficiency. We recommend the creation of alternative employment opportunities for the rural labour force, provision of effective agricultural extension services to farm families, a minimisation of trade barriers to the import agricultural machinery and an enhancement of the extent of farm mechanisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agricultural sector je characterized by the fact that there is a high level of risk. It was always this case, but in the last years, there is a tendency of the increasing of the risk. The ability of early detection and effective management of the risks is an integral part of the strategic management of every agricultural organization. The paper presents the procedure and outcomes of the questionnaire survey aimed at the occurrence of the risk factors and approaches to the risk management in the enterprises of the primary agricultural production in Slovakia. The survey is focused on the individual character of the risk. The results of the survey point out the fact, that Slovakian farmers perceive the price risk, production or income risk as the most important risk factors, and the diversification as a most important strategy of the risk management. The most significant positive correlations were found between the land size and the perception of the price risk importance, between the number of years in office and the perception of the price risk importance. Concerning the production or income risk, the significant positive correlation was found in the legal form of business. As the most important, there was evaluated the risk perceived by the self-employed farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Th e objective of the work was to analyse the prevailing activation process of the Localized Agri-food System (LAS) by using social networks as a tool to value the pre-existing social capital. Th ere were 27 producers of "Chiapas Cream Cheese" and the members of the formal cheese maker organization from the state of Chiapas, Mexico that were interviewed. By the means of cluster analysis and the graphic design of friendship, the kinship, the "compadrazgo" knowledge, the collaboration and cooperation networks, we concluded that the structural activation must transcend the formal creation of an organization. It is best to value and then mobilize the pre-existing social capital in a territory with a specific traditional know-how as a foundation to the structure and activation process of the LAS. Four actors were identified for their active participation in all analysed networks; these were the information diffusers and network structures. Weak links in the cheese maker organization favour the innovation adoption; whereas the strong links maintain the know-how. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme differences in agricultural holding size, existing not only among the countries within the EU as a whole but also within the farm structures of the individual countries, create a considerable uncertainty for establishing the optimal political and economic instruments to support sustainable rural development. The study explores the determinants infl uencing the spatial volatility of agricultural holding size at both the EU scale and the national scale of the Czech Republic, the latter of which has the largest mean agricultural holding size in the EU. While some factors are identical for both the EU and the Czech Republic, other effects can only be evaluated at the European or international scale, and still others can be evaluated only at the national scale. The only factor found in this study to be significantly associated with the agricultural holding size on the European scale was the wheat production. On the Czech national scale, land consolidation, unemployment rate, and soil fertility were signifi cantly associated with the agricultural holding size. The study found that in the Czech Republic, the number of farms was increasing, while at the same time the agricultural holding sizes were decreasing. Th is is an opposite trend in comparison to the EU as a whole, where the number of farms is diminishing and the sizes increasing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of the article is to show the response of the Maximum Residue Limits adopted by importing countries on exports of the selected food commodities from China. The study estimates the gravity model using the Ordinary Least Squares, Poisson and the Negative Binomial Regression estimators. According to the results, the Maximum Residue Limits has a trade enhancing effect on exports of the selected food commodities from China. This trade enhancing impact may be due to the current government policies to put a cut on the food safety issues, to ensure safe food for all and adopting a protectionist policy in terms of the Maximum Residues Limits for the selected commodities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In view of the strengthening demographic trend of ageing of the population and the pension reform underway in the Czech Republic, the problem of Age Management, which focuses on the management taking into account the age of employees, has become very current from the perspective of securing manpower. The agricultural sector has also long been facing problems in the area of manpower. Therefore, the aim of the article is to analyse and evaluate the costs for supporting the Age Management in agricultural businesses and to propose measures leading to the effective utilization of these analysed financial means. The data were acquired on the basis of a quantitative survey with the aid of a questionnaire survey in agricultural businesses in the Czech Republic (the number of businesses: n = 436, the number of agricultural businesses: nz = 103). One of the conclusions of the article is that 24.3% of the approached agricultural businesses are implementing the Age Management. These are primarily small and medium agricultural businesses with up to 50 employees, which incur in average 6 to 10% of operational costs in relation to the gained profits on the application of the Age Management principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to analyze Korea's import trade in agricultural products with (i) the least developed countries (LDCs) and (ii) the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Extended versions of a gravity model are adopted and the balanced panel data for the unilateral trade over the period of 2003 to 2008 are constructed using the Harmonized System Codes. The Heckman two-stage analysis is incorporated to detect the potential selection bias arising from many zero trades. We find that only preferential tariff s on the LDCs have significantly contributed to the trade flows. However, in contrast, gross domestic products (GDPs), free trade agreements (FTAs), the applied tariff rates, and the exchange rates turn out to be statistically significant in the trade with the OECD countries, thus highlighting the possibility of the potential trade benefits associated with the trade policy reforms. The study is unique in that it empirically estimates the determinants of agricultural trade between the LDCs and developed countries and reveals the potential effectiveness of the preferential treatment and the implementation of the trade policy reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]