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The intensification of agricultural practices in Bangladesh has caused significant environmental challenges. This has also undermined farmers' economic sustainability, mainly due to the excessive use of subsidised chemical fertilisers. To address these issues and align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Bangladesh has prioritised the adoption of sustainable farming practices, including the recommended fertiliser application (RFA). However, whether the adoption of RFA ensures economic sustainability remains uncertain. This study evaluates how the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute's (BRRI) proposed RFA affects fertiliser use and cost-efficiency. Drawing on five years (2017–2021) of panel data from 2 025 households across three acidic soil regions in Dinajpur, the findings reveal that RFA adoption reduces fertiliser use by 12% while improving cost efficiency by 4.9–5.1%. These results highlight the potential of RFA to mitigate environmental degradation while enhancing economic outcomes, thereby supporting the SDG agenda. In light of these benefits, the study offers key insights for policymakers and development practitioners, emphasising the need for targeted interventions to accelerate RFA adoption and promote sustainable agriculture.

Many companies depend on debt sources; they use them to finance their needs. Bank loans are the main debt sources to which companies have access. However, financing only with this source is associated with many risks. The paper’s main goal is to assess and quantify the indebtedness of wineries in Slovakia for 2013–2021 through individual debt ratios. The influence of financial leverage on return on equity (ROE) was tested. The data were drawn from the Register of Financial Statements. From the point of view of the total debt ratio, wineries show values higher than 65%. The presence of short-term debts, especially short-term liabilities, prevailed. The average share of equity reached a very low value of 11%. The average share of bank loans on financing operating activities was very low at the level of 8.53%. The return on assets (ROA) was lower than the cost of debt in most wineries, which means that increasing indebtedness had a negative effect on ROE.

In recent years, China has promoted large-scale hog farming through various approaches. However, this scale-up process may be affected by economic policy uncertainty. This paper empirically examines the impact of policy uncertainty on hog farming scale-up using provincial panel data from 2016–2022 and a fixed-effects model. Our results indicate that economic policy uncertainty significantly inhibits hog farming scale-up, and this effect remains significant even when we increase the criteria for recognising scale-up, alternative estimation methods include two-stage least squares (2SLS), dynamic panel model and panel Poisson model. Mechanism analysis reveals that economic policy uncertainty not only exacerbates the impact of labour and capital factor prices on scale-up hog farming but also exacerbates the volatility of hog prices, which further raises the risks faced by hog farming and inhibits scale-up hog farming. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the effect of economic policy uncertainty on hog farming scale-up decreases as farm size increases. Higher-level economic policy uncertainty can inhibit scale-up hog farming, while lower-level economic policy uncertainty can instead promote scale-up hog farming. Economic policy uncertainty has a more obvious inhibitory effect on scale-up hog farming in major development areas. These findings have important implications for the promotion of large-scale hog farming and related policy regulation.

Addressing social sustainability, gender dynamics, strengthening educational diversity and ensuring inclusive partnership structures are all key components of promoting inclusion, not only in the agricultural sector. Diversity management is a human resource trend based on respect for inclusive culture, gender and ethnic diversity, multifaceted equality or the use of virtual teams under the right working conditions, but when not applied correctly it may produce undesired effects in agribusinesses as well as in other economics sectors. This paper aims to identify effective approaches to setting working conditions used by organisations to promote inclusion, management diversity and the development of social sustainability. The data were obtained through quantitative research using the Computer Assisted Web Interviewing method (n = 202) and processed using the chi-square test at a 0.05 significance level as well as through qualitative research involving focus groups (n = 10). The study results have demonstrated that investment in diversity education remains crucial. Not only agricultural but also other businesses have begun to use metrics to monitor their diversity and inclusion progress. Organisations are beginning to use artificial intelligence (AI) to remove prejudices in recruitment, identify inequalities in remuneration and ensure inclusion in online communication.

Multifunctional landscapes, such as agroforestry, that improve soil health are essential in sustaining terrestrial life by supporting various ecosystem services (ESs). However, decision-making often requires more attention to soil health because its parameters have no market value. In this study, we aim to evaluate soil health parameters in cacao agroforestry and monoculture and their degradation due to erosion and to estimate their indirect use value (IUV). We develop a soil health economic valuation approach bridged by ESs because the economic valuation of ESs tends to be better studied. We estimated the IUVs of the eight soil health parameters by using the direct proxy revealed prevalence valuation method on the basis of the valuation of the four ESs they support: water regulation, climate regulation, nutrient retention and biodiversity. The total IUVs for cacao agroforestry were USD 633 with Endoaquepts and USD 723 with Dystrudepts and for cacao monoculture were USD 415 with Endoaquepts and USD 575 with Dystrudepts. Soil carbon has the highest contribution to IUV, followed by soil nitrogen. Agroforestry not only increases IUV but also minimises its decrease due to erosion. Despite economic valuations being subject to uncertainty, these results encourage the internalisation of soil health values in sustainable land management design.

To achieve the coveted objectives of sustainable development, the Bangladesh government has devised a comprehensive strategy to promote the adoption of innovative agricultural practices capable of addressing the critical challenges at the intersection of food, energy, water, and ecosystems (FEWE). This plan prioritises the increased uptake of solar irrigation and recommended fertiliser application (SIRFA) technologies to enhance sustainable food production while effectively managing energy and water resources, and fostering ecological balance. Thus, this study analysed seven years of panel data (2015–2021) to assess the long-term impact of SIRFA technology adoption on production costs (PC) and return on investment (ROI) among Bangladeshi farmers cultivating the BRRI-dhan29 rice variety in the water-scarce, acidic soils of Dinajpur. Utilising the generalised estimating equation (GEE) with a population-averaged model, we investigated the determinants of adoption. Additionally, we applied a two-stage residual inclusion (2SRI) method alongside six linear panel-data models to analyse the impact of SIRFA adoption. Our findings revealed that adopters experienced reduced production costs and enhanced ROI through SIRFA technology adoption. These results emphasised the urgent need for region-specific policy interventions to facilitate the broader adoption of SIRFA technologies.

Agriculture has lost its importance in many parts of the world, leaving peasants in a state of uncertainty regarding their social status and identity. This article uses both quantitative and qualitative data to present the changes experienced by Romanian peasants as a result of an entire series of processes which led to the loss of their place within society. Statistical data are used to illustrate the evolution of the most relevant agriculture-related indicators over the last three decades. Qualitative data are presented in order to explain how developments in agriculture were perceived by peasants. While the changes might be irreversible, the story of the 'old' class of peasants should constitute a starting point for redesigning national policies and avoiding the disintegration of an entire social class.

A public private partnership can be an effective approach to deal the projects with modern agricultural development in Sub Saharan Africa. A former financial analysis of a development project, carried out by the authors, showed that public and private partners can effectively join in a mutually satisfactory venture capital. The same project is now complemented with a bankability study, considering lenders options, equity allocation, collaterals and likely applicable interest rates, available cash flow and sustainable debt service repayment to provide a through financing scenario for each partner's perspective assessing the relevant Debt Service and Loan Life Cover Ratios. Cash flow and interest rates fluctuation impacts are eventually investigated with a sensitivity analysis to prove the robustness of the proposed scenario.

The article focuses on selected aspects of risk management in agricultural business with the aim to discuss and compare different hedging methods which are relevant for managing the commodity risks associated with agricultural production. The article provides a broader context for understanding the risks and possible responses to it and analyses four basic hedging strategies - commodity futures, forward contracts, options and option strategies. The substance, advantages and disadvantages of each hedging technique are pointed out and compared to each other with the conclusion that there is always some kind of trade-off between the advantages and disadvantages of the particular strategies. The farmers shall, therefore, consider both all aspects of the relevant strategies and their expectations, before they make the final decision which instruments to use.

Slovenia, like other developed countries, is characterized by the fact that the number of farm takeovers is decreasing and farms are not being transferred to successors in a timely manner. As an EU member state, Slovenia is entitled to financial incentives intended to halt or at least ameliorate this trend, but the situation is nonetheless not improving. This article proceeds from the hypothesis that economic factors are not the only ones that affect succession on Slovenian farms. The hypothesis was confirmed in a study limited to mountain farms. It was determined that, although economic factors have a significant effect on succession on Slovenian farms, at the same time other factors also affect this. Among these, the factors that stand out the most are those through which tradition or traditional thought and behavioral patterns are expressed, as well as the factors that express the standpoints, perceptions, and opinions of farm owners.

The paper deals with the analysis of the proposals of the European Union Common Agricultural Policy reform (the EU CAP) after 2013 and modelling forecast of its impacts on Slovak agriculture. The behaviour of business entities in agriculture is significantly influenced by the current support scheme and the level of support within the EU CAP but also by market conditions. The impacts of the particular scenarios on the changes of production indicate that Slovak agriculture will approach just slowly the 2008 production level. This will be decisively influenced by the price development. Despite of this, it is evident that the most favourable result can be achieved under the Flat Rate Scenario while the absolute abolition of direct payments (Liberal Scenario) will bring very unfavourable economic consequences with impacts on agricultural production in Slovakia.

The objective of the article is to describe the possibilities of the rural development in the Bratislava region. The rural region is represented by 71 municipalities in districts Malacky, Pezinok, Senec and by parts of the city Bratislava - Záhorská Bystrica, Vajnory, Jarovce, Rusovce and Čunovo. The analyses of the rural region are the segments of the Single Programming Document (SPD) for the 2004-2006. It aims to support the areas with the main economic and social problems according the Goal 2. The article deals with the development possibilities in industry, market services, tourism and agriculture. The branch structure, main economic parameters of effectiveness and production, employment, wages are analysed in period 1999-2002. The article contains also the results of SWOT analysis and the short-term activities to supporting rural development.