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This paper deals with the use of social networks in agricultural enterprises and focuses mainly on their role and share in increasing the competitiveness of agricultural enterprises in the market. Primary data were obtained from an extensive survey of the development of information and communication technologies in agricultural enterprises, which was conducted in the first quarter of 2021 throughout the Czech Republic (“Survey 2021”). The research was primarily focused on capturing current trends in the use of ICT with emphasis on selected key areas (broadband, social networks, communication tools, regional Internet portals, used hardware categories, used software, mobile communications, Internet of Things, data storage and security, social networks, etc.). This survey builds on previous extensive surveys conducted by the Department of Information Technologies, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, CULS in Prague in several phases since 1999, with the last stage being conducted in 2017. Some surveys were conducted in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture of Czech Republic.Compared to recent years, the survey includes new domains, such as the use of the Internet of Things in plant and animal production, data storage and security, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the company's core operations, etc. The survey was prepared, conducted and administered by the Department of Information Technology, Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Life Sciences Prague.

The evaluation of websites at the Department of Information Technologies has so far been largely focused on the websites of towns, municipalities, or regional Internet portals. In the submitted article, we focused on evaluation of food and farmers’ e-shops. As the new generation grows in the digital age and it is accustomed to search for and buy goods in this environment, we have decided to focus on this issue. To ensure that the user repeatedly returns, you need to recognize what services he requires. For the purposes of evaluation, we determined 25 parameters, in which 12 are new parameters focused on the service category and used them for evaluation of nine food and farmers’ e-shops: 5 Czech, 2 British, and 2 Greek. It turned out that comparing Czech and foreign e-shops with the same parameters is not entirely appropriate. Some parameters can only be applied in the Czech environment (like cash on delivery), which was not even offered in evaluated foreign e-shops. Similarly, the option for free pickup at the designated place was also not available. If we would evaluate Czech and foreign e-shops separately, kosik.cz would be the winner among Czech e-shops and yolenis.com among foreign e-shops.

The present paper is aimed at introducing a pilot study on the use of social networks in agricultural enterprises. It is focused in particular on using social media as a development tool with a view to increase the market competitiveness of agricultural enterprises. The primary data have been retrieved from a questionnaire survey of ICT use in agricultural enterprises of the Czech Republic (the so-called Exploration 2011). The questionnaire survey was targeted at agricultural enterprises farming at least the area of 100 hectares (a basic selection criterion of the complex survey). The survey dealt not only with monitoring social networks use in agricultural enterprises as such but as well with the promotional potential of social networks in agricultural enterprises with non-agricultural activities. The survey was focused on the Central Bohemian Region as it shows a high concentration of agricultural enterprises. The present view of social networks in agricultural enterprises within the framework of the above-mentioned complex survey has not been, as far as the authors are aware, neither researched nor published. The thematic focus of the paper follows recent development in this field and current world research trends. The data obtained in the survey were statistically processed and some of the interdependences were monitored.

This report presents the possible uses of programming equipment for creating map resources – a map portal for the development of regions (Map Portal for Region Development – MPRD 1.0). This system offers an overall solution for the presentation of maps for basically any suitable data base. The operation of the system was tested on data resources from the field of ecological agriculture – a quite wide and detailed database of organic farms and a database of biogas stations in the Czech Republic, in both cases this was a pilot project for the South Bohemia Region. The created map resources (maps) were certified by the authorised institutions of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic.Besides supporting functions which are already considered standard today, in terms of quality the provided solution gives a new perspective on creating map resources and it includes a variety of original elements and functionalities. Equally, the data base for verification was generated and updated based on the detailed validation of the content and it aims to achieve a maximum amount of precision when locating objects on a map.