Agricultural Economics, 2012 (vol. 58), issue 2
Disparities in the utilisation of production factors in the agriculture of Slovakia and of the European Union
Miroslav Grznár, Ľuboslav Szabo
Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2012, 58(2):49-55 | DOI: 10.17221/96/2011-AGRICECON 
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.
Optimization of the cropping pattern in Saudi Arabia using a mathematical programming sector model
Ahmed M. Alabdulkader, Ahmed I. Al-Amoud, Fawzi S. Awad
Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2012, 58(2):56-60 | DOI: 10.17221/8/2011-AGRICECON
A mathematical sector model has been formulated to optimize the cropping pattern in Saudi Arabia aiming at maximizing the net annual return of the agricultural sector in Saudi Arabia and ensuring the efficient allocation of the scarce water resources and arable land among the competing crops. The results showed the potential for Saudi Arabia to optimize its cropping pattern and to generate an estimated net return equivalent to about 2.42 billion US$ per year. The optimized cropping pattern in Saudi Arabia has been coupled with about 53% saving in the water use and about 48% reduction in the arable land use compared to the base-year cropping pattern....
Productivity and efficiency of large and small field crop farms and mixed farms of the old and new EU regions
Lucyna Błażejczyk-Majka, Radosław Kala, Krzysztof Maciejewski
Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2012, 58(2):61-71 | DOI: 10.17221/48/2011-AGRICECON
The main aim of the paper is to consider the question whether a higher specialization and a bigger economic size class of farms determine a higher technical efficiency at the same scale for the farms from the new and old countries of the EU. This study is based on the data contained in the Farm Accounting Data Network and covers the first four years following the extension of the European Union in 2004. The adopted units comprised average farms representing 80 regions belonging to eleven countries of the EU-15 and four new EU member states. The estimation of technical efficiency was conducted using the data envelopment analysis, separately for each...
Project costs planning in the conditions of uncertainty
Hana Štiková
Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2012, 58(2):72-84 | DOI: 10.17221/7/2011-AGRICECON
The fuzzy approach to the project network analysis of the project planning and control is commonly oriented on the fuzzy critical path setting and the project duration monitoring. In the article, this approach is improved by the addition of the project costs perspective to the standard time aspect. The relations for the fuzzy quantity of the total project costs and for its membership function are derived. The example demonstrates the application of the theoretical relations and shows how the enhanced fuzzy approach can be used when different project variants are to be compared. The example also reveals how the fuzzy approach with the project costs...
Technical efficiency and supply chain practices in dairying: The case of India
Surender Mor, Supran Sharma
Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2012, 58(2):85-91 | DOI: 10.17221/11/2011-AGRICECON
The presented paper investigates the technical efficiency of small dairy farmers in India 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...
Economic efficiency of Slovak agriculture and its commodity sectors
Zuzana Chrastinová, Viera Burianová
Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2012, 58(2):92-99 | DOI: 10.17221/162/2010-AGRICECON
The article brings out the findings about economic efficiency of agriculture and its commodity sectors after the accession of Slovakia into the EU. The adoption of the CAP had a positive impact on the growth of the off-market and total income but at the same time, its production efficiency decreased and the production structure has changed. Less efficient sectors of the crop and livestock production declined. Regarding the aspect of financing of the agricultural sector, the European resources, mainly the direct payments, were determined. The total subsidies into agriculture increased in comparison with the pre-accession period. The volume of direct...