Agricultural Economics, 2015 (vol. 61), issue 2

Application of the DEA on the measurement of efficiency in the EU countriesOriginal Paper

Kristína KOČIŠOVÁ

Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2015, 61(2):51-62 | DOI: 10.17221/107/2014-AGRICECON  

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...

Evaluation of the state of the Business Intelligence among small Czech farmsOriginal Paper

Jan TYRYCHTR, Miloš ULMAN, Václav VOSTROVSKÝ

Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2015, 61(2):63-71 | DOI: 10.17221/108/2014-AGRICECON  

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 research 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...

Rural tourism development and financing in Romania: A supply-side analysisOriginal Paper

Daniel BADULESCU, Adriana GIURGIU, Nicolae ISTUDOR, Alina BADULESCU

Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2015, 61(2):72-82 | DOI: 10.17221/94/2014-AGRICECON  

For more than a century, and almost everywhere in the world, rural areas suffered a steady decline, due to the decrease of the real income from the agricultural activities, the lack of serious economic alternatives, and demographic issues. Rural tourism could contribute to the rural sustainable development through small local businesses valorising the natural, cultural and ethnographic resources. However, most of them need the financial support from private creditors (banks). The survey-based research conducted among banks' representatives has identified several strengths of small rural ventures, such as the small scale and the associated risks, the...

Agricultural exports and economic growth: Empirical evidence from the major rice exporting countriesOriginal Paper

Hyunsoo KANG

Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2015, 61(2):81-87 | DOI: 10.17221/99/2014-AGRICECON  

This study investigates the evidence of the export-led growth in major rice exporting countries using the extended production model. In addition, a special attention is paid to sectoral exports, which are specified as non-agricultural, agricultural (excluding rice exports), and rice exports. The main finding of this study is that the rice exports are an important means of stimulating economic growth in major rice exporting countries.

An ex-ante impact assessment of the Common Agricultural Policy reform in the North-Western RomaniaOriginal Paper

Mugurel Ionel JITEA, Diana Elena DUMITRAȘ, Vasile Alexandru SIMU

Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2015, 61(2):88-103 | DOI: 10.17221/116/2014-AGRICECON  

The paper aims to assess the impact of the Common Agricultural Policy reform (post 2014) in the environmental vulnerable areas from Romania. It proposes a bio-economic dynamic farm model calibrated with the positive mathematical programming (PMP). The standard PMP approach was extended to simulate the mixed farming systems through the introduction of a livestock production activity in the first calibration step. It allows incorporating activities not available in the base year, but that can be performed by the farmers after the future policy reforms. The model provides supply-responses for both the crop and livestock farms according to the agricultural...