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At present, the agro and food industry has a high influence to farmers in Thailand. Most of the raw materials of agriculture are sent to its manufactoring. This industry has an important role to raise the growth of the Thai economy. The main objective of the paper is to study the production trends and ability operations of the agro and food industry by using economic tools analyse two sub-industry sectors. The paper reviewed literatures on the performance measurement and productivity change of the business sector to obtain the relative variables and optimal methodology. The paper designed to use the panel data of the agro and food industry during the period 2011-2014. The Slacks-based Measure context-dependent Data Envelopment Analysis (SBM context-dependent DEA) was used to analyse the efficiency and ability in the Decision Making Units (DMUs) by employing the attractiveness and progress score. Moreover, the Malmquist index was used to demonstrate the change of the total productivity of this industry. Therefore, the empirical results of the paper can help the companies inside and outside the stock exchange of the agro and food industry to realize the performance level and benchmark leading to the improvement of their operation. Moreover, they help the government to develop its policy and to understand the character of the sub-industry sectors and the productivity trend in this industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the influences of macroeconomic policies on agricultural production and other factors affecting it, based on panel data in a global sample for the period 2010-2017. Because spatial interactions in the agricultural production levels of countries are determined, spatial panel models are employed in the analyses. According to the analysis results, countries' financial, fiscal and monetary policies have an important effect on agricultural production. Besides, other important determinants of agricultural production are climatic conditions, land use and modern input use in agriculture. Our findings have important implications, especially for countries with low agricultural production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on panel data from 2010 to 2020 of 151 A-share listed food-related enterprises in China, this research uses a fixed-effect model to analyse the impact of digital transformation on total factor productivity (TFP) in food--related enterprises. Our findings indicated that digital transformation has a positive and significant catalytic effect on TFP improvement in food-related enterprises. The mechanism test revealed that both cost-saving and innovation capacity enhancement effects of digital transformation contributed to the promotion of TFP improvement in these enterprises. Moreover, our heterogeneity analysis suggested that digital transformation is more effective in enhancing TFP in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the food-related industry, indicating that SOEs play a representative role in promoting advanced productivity in agricultural development. We also found that capital-intensive and technology- intensitve food-related enterprises were experiencing productivity paradox traps. Our results confirmed that digital transformation brings catch-up effects to labor-intensive food-related enterprises and those located in major grain production regions. Overall, this research can provide valuable insights for policymakers to upgrade the digital- -enabled food industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agriculture of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries as well as of the Soviet Union was an often studied area in the 1970's and 1980's among agricultural economists. After the system collapse, the transition of the agricultural sectors of these regions has gained importance. However, around the millennium, this topic was less studied. This paper aims at analysing the agricultural performance of CEE and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries between 1997 and 2016 and identifying whether the system change and transition have brought changes and convergence in agricultural productivity to EU-15 levels. In doing so, the paper uses convergence theory and associated methods (Kernel density and Markov transition probability) to underpin its arguments. Results suggest that CEE and CIS countries have experienced a limited convergence to Western-European standards. However, there still exists a significant performance gap between the two regions with CEE countries standing closer to EU-15 averages. Reasons behind diverging performances are numerous as discussed at the end of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable intensification (SI) is a widely discussed concept that aims to increase agricultural production without harming the environment. This study assessed the process of SI that took place in the EU regions from 2004 to 2018 and the impact of structural and weather-related factors. In doing so, a single index based on DEA environmentally adjusted efficiency and kernel regression were applied to data from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) Public Database and the Agri4Cast resource portal. The study found an overall positive trend of SI in the EU regions in which land and animal concentration had a significant impact on this process. Sun radiation, as the only significant weather variable, had a decreasing impact on efficiency due to potential droughts. The findings emphasise the need for political support for regions with a low degree of SI and for those particularly affected by climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural importance in determining the directions of respective regions results from its production potential. The agricultural potential of a given country is determined by natural resources, ways of using them, natural conditions, workforce resources, technical resources and basic economic conditions. In this paper, only income and rural population are taken under consideration to describe the agricultural potential. Currently, European Union countries are functioning under the assumptions of the Common Agricultural Policy, assuming, among other things, increasing agricultural productivity, ensuring an adequate standard of living for the rural population and stabilising markets. The European Union (EU) is one of the world's leading exporters and importers of agricultural products. The obtained results allowed the identification in 2010 and 2018 of countries with high and low values of income and population potential. It is characteristic that within both potentials, population and income, the countries with the lowest potentials are the most numerous group. Poland and Romania stand out against the background of all countries, where due to the high share of people working in agriculture, the population's potential has the highest values. Denmark is also an outstanding country for which income potential has the highest value. This study aims to examine the diversity of selected elements of agricultural potential in the European Union countries. The research was conducted using, among other potential models and global and local spatial autocorrelation statistics. The analysis covered the years 2010 and 2018 by applying statistical data (Eurostat, Statistical Yearbook of Agriculture). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Results of a vast research activity carried out worldwide in the last decades have demonstrated that endophytic fungi hold a fundamental role in improving plant fitness based on their aptitudes as growth promoters and/or defensive mutualists. These properties may have applicative perspectives in crop production, particularly for tree species such as hazelnut (Corylus avellana), which is mostly cropped extensively in semi-natural contexts of highland regions throughout the temperate zones. The available data on the occurrence, ecological roles, and applications in biotechnology of endophytic fungi associated with hazelnuts are revised in this paper in view to provide a reference supporting future investigations and projects aimed at exploiting the potential of this component of the plant microbiome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contains an evaluation of the differentiation of the production potential and efficiency of farms in the member states of the European Union in 2013-2016. To this end, a taxonomic method - Hellwig's development measure - was used. The study was based on data from the European Union Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN). The study results indicate that member states such as the Netherlands, Denmark, Luxembourg, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Slovakia were characterised by the best agricultural production potential. The first four member states also showed the highest efficiency with regard to the utilisation of production factors. On the other hand, low and average potential and efficiency were characteristic of farms in most of the new member states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper incorporates manufacturing and agricultural pollution into a three-sector general equilibrium model with pollution externalities both on agricultural production and labour health. Manufacturing generates pollution that affects agricultural production and health, while agriculture employs the pollutant as a factor for production that only affects health. Under the framework, this paper investigates the impacts of environmental protection policies and a rise in the self-mitigation cost of skilled and unskilled labour on wage inequality. A larger environmental tax expands wage gap if partial elasticity of substitution between labour and dirty input in the urban unskilled sector is small enough. More restrictive agricultural pollutants control narrows down the wage gap. The impact of an increase in the self-mitigation cost of skilled labour on wage inequality is ambiguous, depending on the factors substitution in agriculture and the elasticity of manufacturing pollution on agricultural production, while a larger self-mitigation cost of unskilled labour brings down the wage gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Performance of agricultural entities can be observed from several different perspectives: using macroeconomic indicators, the quantity of agricultural production units, or by measuring the profitability. The paper present focuses on the relationship between profitability, return on sales (ROS) and wheat yields per hectare in agricultural entities in member states of the European Union (EU), divided into size categories by quantity standard output (SO). Due to the high proportion of subsidies in agriculture, the ROS indicator was rated in two versions: including subsidies and excluding subsidies. The aim of the paper is to confirm or refute the mutual relationship between these indicators, i.e. wheat yields per hectare, return on sales, and the size of the farm. The comparison is performed by means of indicators of descriptive statistics and tests of mathematical statistics. The results of the research show that return on sales drops with the size of the farm, while yields per hectare grow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, we have investigated several competing stochastic frontier models which differ in terms of the form of the production function (Cobb-Douglas or translog), inefficiency distribution (half-normal or exponential distribution) and type of prior distribution for the parameters (hierarchical or non-hierarchical from the Bayesian point of view). This last distinction corresponds to a difference between random coefficients and fixed coefficients models. Consequently, this study aims to examine to what extent inferences about estimates of farms' efficiency depend on the above assumptions. Moreover, the study intends to investigate how far the production function's characteristics are affected by the choice of the type of prior distribution for the parameters. First of all, it was found that the form of the production function does not impact the efficiency scores. Secondly, we found that measures of technical efficiency are sensitive to distributional assumptions about the inefficiency term. Finally, we have revealed that estimates of technical efficiency are reasonably robust to the prior information about the parameters of crop farms' production technology. There is also a resemblance in the elasticity of output with respect to inputs between the models considered in this paper. Additionally, the measurement of returns to scale is not sensitive to model specification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Th e goal of the paper was to define recommendations of a suitable business strategy for SMEs in the area of primary agricultural production. First, the external environment was analysed to define suitable recommendations for the industry, and also to discover opportunities and threats through fi tting strategic analyses, that aff ect the aforementioned businesses. Secondly, it was necessary to get familiar with the internal environment and functioning of specific businesses in the industry (namely those that operate in the Western region of Prostějov at the foot of the Drahanska Highlands) and to evaluate their efficiency to define their strengths and weaknesses. Th e paper demonstrates that there is a wide range of means that can be taken advantage of when defining fi tting strategies for agricultural businesses, e.g. the Porter's Five Forces Model, the IFE and the IE Matrix, the SWOT Matrix as well as the general strategies by Ansoff. Among the most important recommendations for increasing the competitiveness of SMEs in the agricultural industry, there belong: taking advantage of all the suitable agricultural subsidies, taking advantage of accredited agricultural advisors, making sure that the legal requirements of governmental bodies are met, increasing revenues for arable farming (through a good quality seed stock, chemicals and fertilizers, the foundation of suitable storage facilities in order to postpone the sales of the grain after the harvest season), creating sales cooperatives/associations to balance the competing force of buyers, rejuvenating the workforce, solidifying the ownership structure in the businesses, entrepreneurial diversification (electrical energy production), increasing quality in animal farming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decision on the capital structure of an enterprise is very important because a bad decision can aff ect a company's profitability leading to a decrease in the shareholders value. Th e good fi nancial decision can increase the market value of the owners' equity and poor fi nancial decisions can decrease it. Th e main objective of fi nancial decisions is to maximize the wealth of stockholders. Th e eff ect that capital structure decisions have on profitability and enterprise value is that it increases value through the present value of tax savings from the use of debt. Th e enterprises can use debt or equity capital to fi nance their assets. Th e best what they do is to mixture the debt and equity. Th is paper analyses how far the capital structure aff ects the profitability of agricultural holdings in the Czech Republic for a period of six years from 2008 to 2013. Data was obtained from the Albertina and was analysed by using the descriptive statistics, the correlation analysis and the regression analysis. Th e results show that there is a negative relationship between the short-term debt to the total assets and profitability, between the long-term debt to the total assets and profitability, and between the total debt to the total assets and profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New requirements regarding agriculture production together with the increased pressure on environmentally friendly practices leave almost no space for the routine agriculture production. Innovations that include environmental changes are therefore essential. Agricultural research faces various challenges associated with the quality and eff ectiveness of agriculture production and recently also with the environmental and sustainability issues. Th e paper provides a case study focused on the environmental and social evaluation of a biological asset that constitutes an agricultural innovation. Th is paper also shows a concrete example of how the social and environmental reporting can be constructed and implemented by providing an evaluation of a Bumblebee Nest. As a result, the total value consisting of the market, ecosystem and aesthetic value is provided. Although the market value comprises the largest proportion of the total value, it does not exceed 64%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses disparity in the performance of farms in the EU countries and identifies their causes. The individual countries are ranked in the paper according to the long-term average of the amount of their agricultural produce per unit of area into seven segments, and the relation between the input of fixed assets, intermediate consumption, labour force, levels of animals, and other aspects are identified for the creation of agricultural production. In terms of its performance, the Slovak agriculture ranks in the last but one seventh segment and in comparison with the advanced countries, it shows a low input of fixed assets, intermediate product, livestock units, but also a lower volume of the provided subsidies than the advanced countries. The Slovak agriculture does not make use of its competitive advantages, which involve mainly the size of businesses, the economies of scale, and the productivity of labour. [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]

Agricultural R&D has been identified as an important determinant of economic output in the agricultural sector. Surprisingly, in previous studies, spatial spillover associated with R&D spending in the agricultural sector has not been taken into account. This paper investigates the effects of spatial spillover of agricultural R&D on regional economic growth across EU-28 NUTS-II regions in the period 1995-2014. In particular, we extend previous studies by considering spillover in all sectors of agricultural R&D performance including business enterprise, government and higher education. The spatial Durbin panel data model is employed to estimate brooders effect including direct and indirect effects. Empirical results show a positive effect of agricultural R&D and its spatial spillover on regional growth in all performance sectors. Moreover, the impact of spatial spillover of agricultural R&D on regional growth depends on the performance of the R&D sectors; positive spillovers are stronger in the business enterprise sector. Finally, the interaction effect between the economic output of the agricultural sector of each region with that of its neighbours is significantly positive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precision agriculture is increasingly relying on tractor auto-steer systems to boost productivity and optimize crop inputs. Identifying field variations and performance, on the other hand, is necessary for giving site-specific recommendations. This study reports the field operating performance indicators of manual (MG), semi-automatic (SG), and automatic (AG) tractor guidance for weed control in wheat production in Southern Italy. Performance indicators include effective worked area, overall working time, effective field capacity, field efficiency, fuel consumption, and product usage. The SG tractor guidance working times were similar to the MG, but with significant savings in the herbicide spray solution and work quality. In terms of all parameters examined, the AG outperformed the SG and MG. The AG was 54% faster than the MG, resulting in an increased area worked and effective field capacity of 5 and 46%, respectively. The total time (effective time plus non-productive time) was reduced by 28%, while overlapped areas by 88.9%. Herbicide and fuel input was reduced by 30 and 11.5%, respectively. A streamlined environmental analysis indicated that AG could reduce the energy and carbon intensity of the one-time weed control process by 25 and 27% for each hectare. Our results confirm that auto guidance provides numerous benefits (e.g., machining uniformity, increased work quality, reduced resource use, and reduced environmental burdens), supporting the larger goal of agricultural production sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A standard concept of biogas plants - strong maize silage concept is due to its high economic advantage as the maize silage is one of the most effective substrate for anaerobic digestion in matter of biogas yield. Increasing demand for maize silage, reflected in a rise of its price, endangers the economic effectiveness and therefore economic sustainability of the biogas sector. This situation also creates negative externalities related to upward pressure on food prices and lower livestock production. Moreover, biogas plants focused primarily on maize silage could increase the area of arable land for growing maize for energy purposes and decline the production of crops for human nutrition. The paper focuses on examination of consequences of maize cultivation intended for biogas production in case of Slovakia. The results show the impact of biogas production via anaerobic digestion on area of land used for maize production and live bovine animal production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the spatial differentiation of particulates emission resulting from agricultural production in Poland. Some indicators of emission have been verified and adjusted to the Polish conditions. The paper estimates PM2.5 (particulate matter, aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 µm) and PM10 (particulate matter, aerodynamic diameter less than 10 µm) emission resulting from agricultural production and agricultural soil. The findings of the research conducted by the Institute of Ecology of Industrial Areas in Katowice in cooperation with the Institute for Chemical Processing of Coal in Zabrze were the main source of those alterations. Data concerning particular sources of emission also come from the information provided by the Central Statistical Office in Warsaw, the Bank of Local Data 2017. The estimation of PM2.5 and PM10 emission was conducted based on the structure of sources of emission resulting from agriculture contained in "EMEP/EEA Emission Inventory Guidebook" in accordance with the Tier 2 method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A field experiment was established in 1972 on Luvisol. Three types of fertilizers - cattle manure (CM), cattle slurry (CS) and mineral fertilizers were used. CS was applied in the following doses: I - balanced with CM in terms of the amount of introduced total nitrogen and II - balanced with CM in terms of the amount of introduced total organic carbon (Ctot). 39 years after the experiment was established, half of each experimental plot was limed and since then the experiment was carried in two series - non-limed and limed soils. The paper presents the results of soil analyses 41 years after the experiment was started. It was found that each fertilization system increased the Ctot content in soil in relation to the unfertilized control plot. The increase of Ctot fluctuated between 0.35-6.22 g/kg of dry matter. In both series, the highest Ctot content was observed in the soil fertilized with CM and CM + PK. Limed compared to non-limed soil contained nearly 25% more carbon of humic acids than fulvic acids and nearly 20% lower content of low molecular humic bonds. Liming considerably widened the humic acids carbon:fulvic acids carbon (CHA:CFA) ratio of the fertilized soils, up to 1.32-1.87, while the corresponding objects of the non-limed series showed the CHA:CFA ratio between 0.75-0.97. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the period 2007-2013 LEADER became the fourth axis of rural development policy. One of the main characteristics of LEADER is that it adopts a bottom-up approach. Local Action Groups (LAGs) have to define and implement area-based local development strategies (LDSs). In this paper, we examine the relationship between variety in the LDSs implemented by LAGs and employment safeguarding over the programming period 2007-2013 in Andalusia, the most populated region of Spain. Firstly, we construct several indicators to capture differences in the number of projects carried out, the grants awarded, the investments made and the safeguarded employment. Secondly, we carry out an exploratory factor analysis. We use cluster analysis to classify LAGs applying similar LDSs. The results obtained show that there is no ideal strategy for employment safeguarding and that spending high amounts of money in a few numbers of projects does not guarantee success. Thus, most LAGs do not show any clear specialisation pattern but obtain moderate results in terms of employment safeguarding. This supports the idea that LAGs need to have sufficient flexibility to find a balance among the different objectives of the rural development policy and to translate this balance into the funding of projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the recent advances in stochastic frontier (SF) models and its implications for the performance of Norwegian crop-producing farms. In contrast to the previous studies, we used a cost function in multiple input-output frameworks to estimate both long-run (persistent) and short-run (transient) inefficiency. The empirical analysis is based on unbalanced farm-level panel data for 1991-2013 with 3 885 observations from 455 Norwegian farms specialising in crop production. We estimated seven SF panel data models grouped into four categories regarding the assumptions used to the nature of inefficiency. The estimated cost efficiency scores varied from 53-95%, showing that the results are sensitive to how the inefficiency is modeled and interpreted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to determine whether and to what extent Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) measures actually succeed in preserving the diversity of agricultural landscapes. This paper assesses the effects of agricultural policy on changes in the diversity of agricultural landscapes in Slovenia. Diversity is measured by the Shannon index and the Simpson index, while the impacts were estimated using a spatial lag model. The results show that direct payments decrease landscape diversity by 2 index points per 1 000 EUR/ha, but agri-environmental payments for reducing negative impacts on the environment and those for nature conservation increase agricultural landscape diversity by 2.8 index points and 12.30 index points per 1 000 EUR/ha, respectively. Furthermore, we did not find any statistically significant effects of habitat protection payments on landscape diversity. Since direct payments are almost four times larger on average as agri-environmental payments, they preserve landscape diversity only to a limited extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of the paper is to highlight the impact of agricultural performance on working poverty in the EU countries, in the 2008-2013 period, for identifying some measures that need to be taken to increase the agricultural performance so that the in-work poverty reduces. The comparative analysis shows that agricultural performance, according to the agricultural indicators analysed and the phenomenon of working poverty vary significantly across the EU countries. The correlation and regression analysis results suggest that the high level of employment in agriculture in some EU countries can be mainly explained by the small scale agriculture, a high share of subsistence holdings and a low agricultural labour productivity. The results of the multiple regression analysis highlight that working poverty at the EU level is influenced positively by the employment in agriculture, and is influenced negatively by the economic size farm and land productivity. Moreover, the results show large cross-country differences in terms of agricultural performance-working poverty link, fact which emphasizes the need to take specific actions to improve efficiency of the EU agricultural sector for reducing the working poverty. The findings of the study can be useful for the policymakers to formulate policies for a decent and productive employment within a sustainable development of agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growth biostimulators activate some physiological processes that increase the efficiency of the usage of nourishing substances, stimulate the development of plants and allow reduced fertiliser consummation. Most biostimulators are capable of reacting against the effect of biotic and antibiotic stresses as they increase the crop production of the cultures and represent an opportunity of growing quality and healthy food. The article affects the results of the influence of RadiCifo L24 and Euroradix over the growth and development of grafted cuttings in vine rootings. The study was carried out through the dessert seedlees grapevine variety 'Zornitsa' grafted over the Berlandieri x Riparia (SO4) pad. Before rooting, paraffin is applied to 2/3 of the stratified grafted cutting's length and is then immersed in a 2% solution of RadiCifo L24 (for 20 minutes) and Euroradix (for 5 minutes), after that the cuttings are rooted to 15-17 cm in depth (to the non-paraffined part). According to the biometrics rating (number of developed shoots, number of roots), the variant with the growth stimulator RadiCifo L24 seems to be a more effective method for the production of first-class vines of the 'Zornitsa' variety, thus it can be recommended for the production of vine planting material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Th e objective of the paper is to quantify the eff ect of the R&D investments on agricultural productivity in the Czech Republic using the co-integration analysis. The eff ect of the R&D investments is measured by a knowledge stock constructed using a gamma distribution with lags ranging from 7 to 15 years. The relationship between the total factor productivity in agriculture, the domestic knowledge stock and the foreign R&D spillovers approximated by the imports of agricultural technologies is examined using an error correction model. Whereas the estimates confirm that domestic research plays a positive role in agricultural productivity, the results for the foreign R&D spillovers are rather weak. Furthermore, there is little evidence that either length of time or the functional form of weights plays a major role in assessing the dependence of the productivity on R&D investments; however, the models with the knowledge distribution lags longer than 7 years perform better. [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 purpose of the paper is to investigate the relative technical efficiency of the agricultural sector in the European Union (EU) using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) during the period 2007-2011. The authors investigated efficiency using both the input and output-oriented models with the assumption of a variable return to scale. They looked for causes of inefficiency and made recommendations for inefficient agricultural sectors. The results show that, in average, the EU agricultural sectors performed efficiently, as evidenced by the relatively high value of the average input and output efficiency. The efficiency of the EU agricultural sectors had changed over the past few years, and in both models the efficiency has generally decreased over time. As the main source of inefficiency was labelled the input "total utilised agricultural area" and as the strength with a positive impact on efficiency, there was labelled the "crop output." By calculating the optimal values for the input and output variables for inefficient agricultural sectors, it has been found that for the efficient production of a given quantity of outputs, it was necessary to reduce the value of the in put "total labour" in average by 6.18%, the "total utilised agricultural area" in average by 14.45% and the "total assets" in average by 5.93%. In case of the output-oriented model for efficient use of a given quantity of inputs, the agricultural sectors should produce up to 111.85% of their crop output and 113.41% of their animal output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business Intelligence (BI) can assist in agricultural enterprises to strengthen their production potential and technical efficiency due to its effective support to the managerial, analytical, planning, and decision-making activities of managers and specialists. However, the state of the BI in the Czech Republic is not still completely understood. In this context, this paper aims at the evaluation of the current state of the art of the BI among small Czech farms. The focus of the re search was put on the evaluation of both the state of the BI, and the relevant business information systems and software for agriculture. There was a survey among 135 agricultural entrepreneurs from various regions in the Czech Republic. The survey results are presented by the descriptive statistics and frequency tables. There is an examination of the relationship between the agricultural enterprise structure and the use of the BI. Dependencies among the examined characteristics were sought by the means of the analysis of qualitative variables. With 95% probability, it could be claimed that the type of production, the size of farmed land, the number of employees and the level of financial subsidies have no signifi cant impact on using the BI, the expert and analytical systems in agricultural enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the European Union, the support of Less Favoured Areas (LFA) has a long tradition as a part of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Above all, it is the objective of the subsidies to maintain the agricultural production in LFAs, but also to consider the environmental aspects in LFAs and its funding schemes. Investigations of the latter are subject of this article. After having discussed the theoretical possibilities to influence environmental impacts by the funding scheme, several analyses are compiled and complemented by own calculations. The research has shown that agricultural practices within Less Favoured Areas are more environmentally friendly than in other areas. Environmentally friendly in this regard means e.g. a lower use of fertilisers and pesticides, but also a higher participation rate in agri-environmental measures. In addition, the crop structures of farms are analysed, e.g. the share of maize and wheat in farms inside and outside the LFAs. While the results presented in this paper relate mainly to Germany, the information on the European level is also taken into consideration. Finally, based on these investigations, recommendations for the revision of the funding programmes following 2013 are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generally, when a certain type of agricultural production is optimized, an interaction is said to exist between two factors when the response (the yield of agricultural production) at the different levels of one factor is affected by the level of the other factor present. Thus, the combined effect of the two factors is not simply the sum of their separate effects, but either more than this sum (synergistic interaction) or less than this sum (antagonistic interaction). A 3 factor interaction between the factor f1, f2, and f3 occurs when the nature of the interaction between f1 and f2 is different at the various levels of f3. Higher order interactions can be similarly defined but these become increasingly more difficult to interpret. A disadvantage of this approach is that it explores each of the agricultural sub-process unrelated to the follow-up sub-process (e.g., this approach optimizes the process of fertilization without links to the crops distribution process and unrelated to the price optimization). This is because each sub-process has a different response unit that is the subject of optimization. Therefore, it is appropriate to investigate the interaction of agricultural production in its integrated form, through a universal response of variables (e.g., in the form of utility from the response). This new approach is introduced in the paper. Thus, the objective of the paper is to present a new method for the formal determination of synergistic effects of the agricultural enterprises management. [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]

The question of what effectt the subsidies have on the productivity of farms in the EU has been studied by many authors, but has not yet been answered. A further research is thus required both in relation to the period since the decoupling reform, and in relation to the new member countries in the EU 28. In the paper, it is suggested that the productivity of resources in agriculture is not affected by the total amounts of subsidies, but by their structure. A three-stage spatial analysis was made of an EUFADN representative sample in the years 2007-2012: in the firts stage, clusters of regions with significantly different agricultural support models were identified; in the second, it was determined whether the structure of the political rent, reflecting the different support models in the EU 28, is a significant determinant of the productivity of capital, land and labour on farms when subsidies are excluded and when they are included in the analysis. In the third stage, a robust model has been estimated (employing GLS) to relate the factors productivity to the EUFADN subsidies and to the location variables identified by the cluster analysis. The analysis confirmed that the qualitative predictor, i.e. "a structure of agricultural support", was a significant factor influencing the capital productivity over the whole of the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysing economic efficiency of farm production always faces a problem of insufficient information. This is particularly true when the analysis is performed on the reference farm where estimates are based on the average aggregated data. The paper illustrates how the combination of different mathematical programming methods could be efficiently used to analyse the farm-production plan with the lack of the on-farm accounting data. The utilised approach shows how the holistic analysis of production planning as a multi-criteria problem could be conducted. The estimation of the missing information and the disaggregation of the endogenous farm data is enabled through different models that are based on the constrained optimisation. The developed models are linked into the spreadsheet modular tool enabling systematic analyses of the farm decision making under risky conditions. Illustration of the modular tool application is given via the analyses of three hypothetic dairy farms. The obtained results indicate that the developed approach enables holistic analyses of the production planning. The methodology applied provides also important information for the measures aimed to increase efficiency as well as to benchmarking the performance of different farm types. The results point to a discrepancy between the solutions obtained through different objective functions and shows the advantage of the multi-criteria approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of the reference ambient background concentrations (ABCs) and quality reference values (QRVs) for trace metal (TM) concentrations in soils are required for the environmental assessment and any implementation of a protective action. This information is lacking for soils of the eastern Mitidja plain, which is an important agricultural production area in Algeria. Data for the aqua regia extractable Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb and Zn concentrations from 180 composite topsoil samples taken across the Mitidja plain in a stratified random pattern were statistically analysed. Descriptive statistical methods and linear regression equations were applied to determine the upper limit of the ABCs for the TMs. After removal of outliers, the derived QRVs were: Cd 0.24, Cr 62.1, Cu 99.3, Fe 45 590, Ni 47.7, Pb 33 and Zn 115 mg/kg. Iron is a macro element in the soils, but is included as its concentration can be used to normalise the concentrations of the other elements. The derived QRVs are similar or less than those reported for other regions of the world, apart from Cu, where a wide range (36 to 206 mg/kg) is reported. These reference values can be used to identify areas that may require follow-up surveys or to identify priority sites for decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural production is one of the main sources of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, contributing 50% and 60% of CH4 and N2O emissions, respectively. This study evaluated the rice yield and components, the CH4 and N2O emissions and the global warming potential between the triple rice (R-R-R) and sesame-rice rotation (S-R-R) systems in Can Tho city, Vietnam. The experiments were conducted in three cropping seasons: spring-summer 2016, summer-autumn 2016, and winter-spring 2016–2017. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the yield components and grain yield between the triple rice and sesame-rice rotation systems. The application of a sesame rotation in rice-based system could reduce the CH4 and N2O emission by 30.5% and 18.7%, respectively. The global warming potential in the S-R-R rotation was 9 860 kg CO2e/ha, significantly lower than the R-R-R rotation (12 410 kg CO2e/ha) by 20.6%. These results show that the S-R-R rotation has the potential to mitigate the GHG emissions, especially CH4, which contributes a large amount of emissions in the rice cultivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment of efficiency of businesses has been considered an object of interest by economists since the 1950's. A number of methods have been developed, including the so-called parametric approaches, using the regression analysis, and the non-parametric approaches, connected with the mathematical programming techniques. However, the diversity of available methods, especially when supplying contradictory estimates, leads to confusion, hindering an objective interpretation of results. In this paper, we propose a procedure leading to the reduction of such discrepancies by the proper modification of a combined method linking the non-parametric approach with a parametric one. Usefulness of the proposed solution is shown by estimation of technical efficiency concerning the agricultural production in the USA and the selected regions of the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study measures changes in total factor productivity of agriculture for 25 European Union (EU) member states in 2004-2016 using the Färe-Primont index. It also attempts to answer the question whether in the analysed period the levels of total factor productivity in this sector were convergent between member states. To this end, panel unit root tests were used. The study indicates that in new EU member states the level of total factor productivity (TFP) was relatively lower than in most EU-15 states. It was also found that convergence occurred in agricultural productivity almost in all EU member states (except Belgium and the United Kingdom). The research shows that in new EU member states the process of making up differences in the productivity of agriculture was stronger than in old EU member states. [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]

Agriculture represents a significant part of the national economy. It secures production of food and influences many related processing industries. Although the volume of agricultural production and its proportion in the gross domestic product has been decreasing, there is a huge interest in increasing the performance of agriculture companies. One of the ways to enhance the company performance, to gain new markets or to achieve cost savings is a merger. Mergers are not very usual in the field of agriculture currently -- their proportion in the total number of mergers in the Czech Republic in 2001-2013 was 3.07%. The aim of this paper is to analyse mergers in the field of agriculture. The analysis focuses on the consequences of mergers from the perspective of changes in the financial position and the company performance in the year before the merger and three years after the merger. h e analysis proved that the company size (measured by the balance sheet total) decreased as a consequence of mergers and their performance increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mexican agricultural production has been characterised by a lack of dynamism in recent years and is losing ground in terms of GDP. This may reflect the lack of funding from commercial and development banks. This research aims at studying the dynamics of the agriculture sector through econometric analysis using Vector Autoregressive (VAR) and Vector Error Correction (VEC) models in order to examine the short- and long-run relationships among agricultural production, terms of trade (ratio of agricultural prices and general price level), agricultural exports and lending from commercial and development banks. The main empirical findings, contrary to what was expected, is that even though there was a precarious level of funding from the banking sector, credit from commercial banking was higher than that from development banking in the last decades. Further, relative prices were found to have a negative relationship with agricultural exports, showing the importance of the external sector in agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a new rebuilding agricultural soil on the North China plains, the salt-affected soil had a short soil-forming process of about 30 years. This paper describes the effect of different fertilization systems on phosphorus (P) dynamics in saline-alkali uncultivated land, in the reserved natural salt-vegetation back zone, and in different phases of fertilization for 24 years on the North China plains. The treatments included control (or check, CK), N1, N2, P1, P2, N1P1, N1P2, N2P1, N2P2. The contents of total phosphorus (TP) showed a significantly decreasing trend from 1.32-1.38 g P/kg to 0.40-0.96 g P/kg. The contents of rapidly available P (RP) were low in the no-P fertilizer treatments and the RP concentrations increased with P fertilizer applications. Corn was the crop that used the most P, especially in the no-P and P fertilizer-only treatments. The treatment with 270 kg N/ha/year and 59 kg P/ha/year represents the most economical fertilizer rates for these salt-affected soils on the North China plains. [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 effect of crop sequences (CR - continuous winter rye; CropR - three-field crop rotation of winter rye-spring barley-bare fallow) and fertilisation systems (unfertilised control, mineral fertiliser (NPK), farmyard manure (FYM)) on crop yield, energy efficiency indicators and land demand were analysed in a long-term experiment under Pannonian climate conditions. Due to lower fuel consumption in the bare fallow, the total fuel consumption for CropR was 27% lower than in CR. It was for NPK and FYM fertilisation by 29% and 42% higher than in the control. Although the energy output was lower in CropR than CR, the energy use efficiency for grain production increased by 35% and for above-ground biomass production by 20%. Overall crop sequences, the NPK treatment had higher crop yields, energy outputs and net-energy output with a lower energy use efficiency than the unfertilised control. CropR increased the land demand just by 20% in comparison to CR, although one-third of the land was not used for crop production. The land demand could be decreased with fertilisation by 50% (NPK) or 48% (FYM). A bare fallow year in the crop rotation decreased the crop yield, energy input and increased the energy use efficiency and land demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought stress is a significant abiotic stressor that has a negative impact on crop production and global food security systems. Drought stress was applied to eggplant seedlings with various field capacities (FC), 80% FC as control, 50% FC, 35% FC, and 20% FC. AgNPs were synthesised from green chemical methods, whereas different concentrations of AgNPs (0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5 µmol) were applied exogenously on drought-stressed eggplants. Drought stress decreased the growth parameters (plant height, fresh mass, dry mass, leaf area), photosynthetic pigments (Chl a, Chl b, carotenoids), and protein content while increased the proline, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), malondialdehyde (MDA) content, and activity of the antioxidant enzymes, i.e., superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT). Ag- NPs restricted proline accumulation and reduced H2O2, MDA content by upregulating the antioxidant enzymes. Overall, the current study's findings indicated that AgNPs are an effective eco-friendly and low-cost application for plant growth under drought stress, with the potential to mitigate the impact of drought on plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Green Deal to tackle climate change sets emission reduction targets for 2050. Particular attention has been paid to the agricultural sector, where there is a strong need to reduce carbon emissions and re-establish the natural carbon cycles. The concept of carbon neutrality is emerging in a scenario where it is necessary to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from cultivation to near zero. The quantification of carbon emissions was carried out by the carbon footprint (CF) of conventional, organic and zero residue potato cultivation in Sicily. In order to provide farmers and consumers with answers regarding the most sustainable cultivation regime, the results showed that the organic and zero residue methods have the best results in terms of emissions; the latter instead revealed the positive results in economic terms. It becomes a new model to follow in the pursuit of sustainability as it is based on the reduction of synthesis inputs and is free from the constraints imposed by organic production standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change scenarios suggest that long periods without rainfall will occur in the future often causing instability of the agricultural products market. The aim of the research was to build a model describing the amount of precipitation and droughts for forecasting crop yields in the future. In this study, the authors analysed a non-standard mixture of gamma and one point distributions as the model of rainfall. On the basis of the rainfall data, one can estimate the parameters of the distribution. The parameter estimators were constructed using the method of the maximum likelihood. The obtained rainfall data allow confirming the hypothesis of the adequacy of the proposed rainfall models. Long series of droughts allow one to determine the probabilities of adverse phenomena in agriculture. Based on the model, the yields of barley in the years 2030 and 2050 were forecasted which can be used for the assessment of other crops productivity. The results obtained with this approach can be used to predict decreases in agricultural production caused by the prospective rainfall shortages. Th is will enable decision makers to shape effective agricultural policies in order to learn how to balance the food supplies and demands through an appropriate management of the stored raw food materials and the import/export policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Slow-release nitrogen fertiliser can potentially increase crop production and improve fertiliser nitrogen use efficiency. However, it is unclear that are suitable for different regions and crops in the northeast of China. Therefore, according to different soil and climate characteristics, we investigated the synchronised relationships between nitrogen slow release fertiliser and nitrogen maize requirements. Experiments were conducted at Shenyang Agricultural University, Liaoning province, Northeast China, from 2016 to 2017. Stabilised fertiliser treatments increased grain yield, nitrogen use efficiency and nitrogen accumulation at each maize growth stage. Grain yield increased by 2.32% and 11.33% (2016), and 1.55% and 7.87% (2017), respectively, when compared with the urea CK1 (233 kg N/ha) and CK2 (210 kg N/ha) treatments. Additionally, during the growth period of the stabilised fertiliser treatment, the stability of the synchronisation relationship between nitrogen absorption and absorption of spring maize was significantly higher than other treatments, and the effect was the best. Therefore, we conclude that the stabilised fertiliser is the most suitable option for promotion and application in spring maize in Northeast China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pakistan is an agriculture-based country, so the agricultural sector is known as the backbone of the national economy. Considering the national economy and the agricultural industry, it is necessary to focus on earnings through agricultural products export to improve the livelihood of local farmers. Therefore, the current study aimed to analyse the short-term and long-term factors affecting agricultural products export. The annual time series of 1976-2016 were collected from World Bank indicators, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the Statistical Bureau of Pakistan. An autoregressive distributed lag, along with a vector error correction model, was employed. A cointegration test showed long-term associations between the selected variables. While the autoregressive distributed lag model confirmed the short-term correlation between area sown and crop production towards agricultural products export, there is no long-term relationship between the selected variables. In addition, the bidirectional correlation between employment in agriculture and agricultural products export was confirmed by the vector error correction model. Therefore, it is essential to increase agricultural production with the available natural resources to increase foreign earnings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]