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Digitalisation is becoming increasingly important in today's world, as digital technologies are rapidly changing the way we live and work. The COVID-19 outbreak has heavily influenced the way many businesses operate across all sectors linked to both changes in consumer behaviour, social-distancing restrictions and also the availability of resources and services (inc. public services). In many cases the processes digitalised during the pandemic are retained in a digital form also in the post-pandemic recovery thus increasing the overall level of digitalisation and contributing to the transition to Industry 4.0. That refers to additive manufacturing, artificial intelligence, big data and analytics, blockchain, cloud computing, industrial internet of things, and simulation to achieve increased efficiency, improved accuracy, reduced costs, enhanced communication and collaboration, and greater access to information and resources. These have become priorities for enhancing Europe's long-term competitiveness and will most probably be intensified in the coming years. Meanwhile, it is necessary to take into account the disparities across European Union (EU) member states in the current level of digitalisation and in the prospects of their development. This study aims to assess the digitalisation process of EU member states, its link with the research and development and innovation via factor analysis and regression. The results of the factor analysis determined the component factors and their relations; and the obtained regression model revealed the digitalization factors that can affect economic growth and contribute to GDP per capita thus being the determinants of economic growth in EU member states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Milk is one of the most strategically important food products for the entire world and the dairy industry is one of the most important agricultural industries apart from grain production in the Baltic States - Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. In general, the dairy sector is very dynamic and responds to various factors (for example, total number of dairy farms, average milk yield per cow, milk price). In view of this fact, it is important to prepare and review the sector's development outlook. Simulation models are often used in the preparation of sector outlooks. There are several simulation models that are used for projecting the agricultural sector (including dairy sector) in the European Union and one of them is the AGMEMOD model. The AGMEMOD model is an econometric and dynamic model with which it is possible to make projections and simulations to assess agricultural support instruments, programs, and policies at the European Union level and at individual Member States level. The regional focus of the AGMEMOD model is built on its representation of the agricultural commodities in each individual European Union member state and neighboring candidate, and other countries. AGMEMOD covers the most important agricultural activities of each country in detail. The purpose of this study is to analyse the dairy sector (including factors affecting the sector) in the Baltic States and using the AGMEMOD model. To reach these purposes, research tasks were set which helped analyse the key factors of the dairy sector in the Baltic States and the operation of the AGMEMOD model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture is an important sector of the economy in the European Union (EU) and milk production is one of the most significant agricultural sectors in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania (Baltic countries). It has proven itself as the sector with stable development and future perspective and these countries are substantial producers of milk and milk products. During the last years farms involved in commercial milk production often had substantial modernization, the farmers are motivated to improve animal welfare, feeding and also genetics and hygiene standards, which leads to higher productivity and milk quality, thus providing economic gains to farmers. The purpose of this study is to analyse the dairy sector in the Baltic countries and trends in its historical development. To reach these purposes research tasks were set, which helped analyse the key elements of the dairy sector in the Baltic countries. After joining the EU, the dairy sector in all Baltic countries has changed - small dairy farms could not complete the new technological requirements and hygiene standards of milk production and left the business, thus reducing the amount of dairy cows countrywide, however, farmers generally choose cows with higher genetic potential that can produce more milk in lactation and improve the feeding and welfare conditions that lead to higher productivity. The sector is also heavily influenced by milk price changes in the key markets in the EU and the EU support. However, the dairy sector in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania is still the most important agricultural commodity production sector besides grain production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The daily life within a modern society is unimaginable without the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). Also the use of collaborative work and fail storage platforms becomes increasingly popular. These technologies contribute to making the work fast and efficient and allow working together in multinational groups with no geographic constraints. Such processes advance the dynamics of work and the ability to create ideas without the limitations of the physical location. Thus people that can work with these technologies and are also creative and innovative are the key factor of successful entrepreneurship. Therefore, investment in human capital is considered highly important and enterprises orienting towards new knowledge, creativity, innovative ideas and skills are strong rivals of the traditionally oriented enterprises. The aim of this study is to analyse the links of the use of ICT in Latvia with the innovation activity and compare the national situation with the situation in the European Union (EU). The results of this study indicate that Latvia is reaching low results in both innovation and the use of ICT comparing to other member states and the use of ICT would need to be enhanced for the improvement of innovation potential and competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting biogas production to generate energy is associated with several EU policy initiatives such as increasing the output of electricity and thermal energy, energy independence, and the reduction of GHG emissions. To reach both, the international and the national policy targets, all EU member states use several support mechanisms. In Latvia four support mechanisms are used - obligatory state purchase of electricity, guarantee of a set price, release from paying the electricity tax for the energy, produced from the renewable resources and public (EU structural fund) funding for investments. In few recent years in Latvia, the support mechanisms described above had created a motivating support system for joining the biogas production sector, but due to the pressure of enterprises and households the government intends to change the support policy and the amount of the support for electricity production from biogas. It creates instability and increases political risks for biogas producers thus obstructing the development of the sector. The current article reviews the integration of the risk assessment results and changes in the governmental support policy for biogas production in the dynamic model of the farm level biogas production and estimates the impact of political risks and current changes in the support policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2015 in Latvia, livestock products accounted for 36.6 % of the total final value of agricultural production, including meat production - 15.5 % and egg production - 3.4 %. Beef and pork production stabilised in the last decade, mutton and goat meat production has tended to increase since 2010, while poultry and egg production has shown an increasing trend since 1999 in Latvia in the period 1995-2015. There are all preconditions for the development of these industries in Latvia, which allow expecting growth in the industries. It is determined by globalisation processes: the increasing world population and growing demand for food, rising incomes and change in eating habits. Livestock output is determined, to a great extent, by the number of agricultural animals kept. For this reason, it is important to project the population of agricultural animals for the period until 2050 in order to assess the development of the livestock industries. This paper reflects the projections elaborated by an econometric, recursive, dynamic, multi-period scenario model developed by the authors of this paper in 2016. The model has been developed according to the specifics of every agricultural industry and takes into account the trends in the industries. The present research on the livestock sector exploited only a part of the model functions - calculations were performed for cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and poultry. The results allowed to conclude that the processes in livestock industries were determined by diverse drivers, e.g. increase in productivity, expansion of large livestock farms, export opportunities and the market situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Milk production is the second most important agricultural sector in Latvia with 17.7 % in the distribution of agricultural final products in 2015. However, the proportion of milk production decreased by 5.3 percentage points in comparison with 2014, reaching the lowest proportion recorded. The agriculture of Latvia depends on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that continuously changes and is reformed. The European Union (EU) decision makers have traditionally used the results of a wide range of quantitative tools in framing their choices among alternative policy instruments. To do it, it is necessary to make long-term projections for the sector. Modelling is a way of solving problems that occur in the real world. There are two important motivations for agricultural model development; 1) scientific understanding; 2) decision making or policy support. In 2016, the Latvia University of Agriculture developed the Latvian Agricultural Sector Analysis Model to simulate the development of agriculture and its key sectors for the period until 2050. The present paper reflects part of the research results - a simulation of dairy farming and a projection made for it. The following factors were taken into account when simulating the dairy sector of Latvia: commercial sales of milk, consumption of milk for food, consumption of milk for feed, milk prices, milk yields, the number of dairy cows, costs (total, as well as feed, labour and investment costs and depreciation expense), and the produced projection is useful for making policies and applying special support instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]