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The starting point for identifying environmental, social and cultural capitals in rural areas is integrated research based on methodological interconnection between quantitative and qualitative investigation. The sorts of capital are constructed by means of an interactive investigation in cooperation with insiders. In this way, such approach belong to endogenous investigating of reality and to the theory of social constructivism.

This article is divided into four parts: the first is concerned with the state subsidy and support policy in the year 2001. The second part of the contribution mentions the subsidy development in production and marginal areas in the period 1996-2001 and its influence on the economic result of an average farm. Another part monitors the grant volume and the economic result at a selective sample of the identical firms in the time period from of the year 1997 to the year 2001 in reference to the farm position. The last part will deal with an evaluation of the grant volume where the subsidies are divided according to the subsidy titles in the year 2001 in an average agricultural firm farming in a certain altitude.

The paper provides some of the interim results of the Fifth Framework PRISMA project dealing with the of impact ICT on government and citizen services in Europe. The analysis and the concept description of long-term strategies for eGovernment and a long-term vision over 10 years for eGovernment are described. Activities performed by the government are analysed from the demand ("front office") and supply ("back office") point of view. Recommendations for long-term strategic decisions are based on three scenarios of the future European development till 2010: (1) "Prosperous and just Europe", (2) "Turbulent world", (3) "Recession and reorientation".

Transformation of Czech agriculture led to significant changes, which were mirrored in the crystallisation of rather large territorial differences. Clear regional disproportions are a fundamental problem for the state as a whole, therefore, it is important to provide aid for the regions that lag behind in economic development by introducing sensible regional policies. This situation is still more complicated in agriculture, as this transformation to free market economy results in the unequal regional development in relation to natural environment, regional traditions and the level of rural settlement in addition to the phenomena such as price liberalisation and the flow of goods, capital and population, among other. At the moment, the principal aims of regional agricultural policies are the preservation of regional productivity, the settlement of problematic and endangered regions and the support of a balanced regional development. The primary goal of this article is to indicate some of the largest regional differentiations in the agriculture of the Czech Republic. The purpose is to give an increased consideration to the restructuring of agricultural production, the environment and the social and general economic milieu in which it is located

The paper presents selected results of the research project NAZV QF 3278 focused on objectification of supply and demand development for organic products. The evaluation of state subsidies' influence on the development of organic agriculture in the Czech Republic and in selected countries of the EU is also included.

Precise categorisation and permanent and completed evidence of agricultural land are necessary for rational utilisation of land fund in Slovakia. Current complex evaluation information system is the only system of this category in our country and consists of the following parts: (1) land-cartographic information system, (2) evaluation data bank. Evaluation data bank includes data about all evaluated soil-ecological units in basic classification, according to users, cadastral areas and higher units of administrative state division. Evaluation data bank is open system updated, improved and widened constantly. It is important source of information used for calculation of land fund evaluation, calculation of financial damage, calculation of land tax, setting of land rent level, estimate of orientation prices for purchase or sales of agricultural land. Recently the data from evaluation data bank have been used for setting and specification of criteria for classification of agricultural land and subjects into the less-favoured areas in Slovakia.

The main idea of the paper is to evaluate the state and development of financial structure of selected agricultural co-operatives in accounting periods from 1994 till 2001. Assets financial stability constitutes an ability of an enterprise to create and balance an accurate relation between assets and their financial sources. The results of the research work document a positive tendency in financial structure in favour of equity capital (Table 1). On the other hand, there have been problems with borrowed capital mainly with the liabilities from business relation. An increasing level of earnings can be assessed positively as well as the participation of new loans in the financial basis of enterprises (Table 3).

The paper deals with statistical analysis of the registered regional unemployment rate in regions and districts of the Czech Republic from 1998 to 2002. Regional unemployment reaches significantly different levels; moreover, within the examined period, differences were increasing: variance between the minimum and the maximum increased approx. from 12% to 20% in the respective districts. By means of cluster analysis, regions are divided into more homogenous groups according to the registered unemployment rate by 31 December 2002. The following districts may be identified as the best ones: Praha-západ (Prague-West), Praha-východ (Prague-East), Praha (Prague) and Benešov; the following as the worst ones: Most and Karviná. Concerning regions, the lowest unemployment level may be identified in Praha (Prague); on the contrary, the highest levels were reached in Ústecký region and Moravskoslezský region. Variability, skewness and peak characteristics were calculated to evaluate the development of regional unemployment distribution. The average rose from 5.63% to 9.94%, the standard deviation rose from 2.53% to 4.15%, the variation coefficient stayed around 0.4. Thus, together with the increase in unemployment level, the absolute variability rose while the relative variability stayed approx. constant. The rate distribution was left-sided and increasing; the peak was only slightly higher than the standard peak. The development trend of the characteristics was evaluated by means of linear functions and higher order polynomials; their seasonal variation is described by seasonal indices differing in the degree of their seasonality and distribution in the course of a year. A correlation matrix demonstrates the relations between the trend of the characteristics and their seasonal indices.

The fact that the development of information and communication technologies (ICT) is a key factor of development of individuals, regions, sectors and whole countries is well known at the beginning of the 21st century. The real situation of ICT utilization is very different in particular sections and it fails to reach standards that we would expect. The sphere of the agrarian sector of the Czech Republic is a very good example. The Information and Consulting Centre FEM at the University of Agriculture in Prague (IPC) has been participating on research of the utilization ICT in agriculture for three years. According to the latest data from July 2002, 55% of agrarian enterprises are connected to the Internet, which is much less than in other sectors.

The paper concentrates on analytical findings of the RIAE in the sphere of problems associated with the readiness of Czech agriculture for the EU accession. An analysis of the present situation of Czech agriculture is followed by an assessment of potential impacts of the EU conditions on the economic position of the main agricultural commodities. The predictions are conceived by variants, because the future parameters of the CAP are still under negotiations. The conclusions are oriented on the summary assessment of the readiness of Czech agriculture for the EU accession.

In this contribution, several findings from the solution of the research project QC 0266 have been summarised in a synthetic form. The project is called "Adaptation of Vegetable Growing, Fruit Growing and Flower Growing to the EU Common Market" and it deals in detail with the basic indices evolution within ornamental gardening. The aim of the output was to get data for quality incidences of the Ministry of Agriculture environmental policies and for a higher representation of the territorial systems of the ecological stability realisations in the cultural landscape of the Czech Republic.

This paper introduces partial results of the research project QC 1140 aimed at the efficiency of enterprises operating in the system of organic farming, especially considering the use of grassland linked with cattle management. Economic evaluation of cattle management in the system of organic farming is compared with conventional enterprises. Economic evaluation applies to dairy cattle and beef cattle. Proposals of the measures will be formed with respect to the results of analysys, which should contribute to the support of organic enterprises and to better satisfaction of the increasing demand for organic food.

The article was written on the base of research results concerning economic development of several selected Czech agricultural companies. In dependence on the altitude, the sample was divided into two sub-samples: companies of production areas and companies of marginal areas. Various economic indicators were monitored in these two sub-samples, the most important one being the economic result before tax. Other monitored indicators are closely related to this one - e.g. the required profit ratio, structure of the economic result, tax impact on the economic result. Other monitored indicators were: the structure of the revenue, productivity of labour, labour technical equipment, capital efficiency and other. Time comparison (development during several recent years; comparison between production and marginal areas) and space comparison of these two sub-samples were carried out. In its conclusion, this article evaluates the history of the hitherto development.

During the years of transition to market economy, a variety of farming types has evolved in Slovakia. Corporate farming is still pursued on about 80 per cent of the total agricultural land area, but a gradual increase of individual farms can be observed. A large portion of the registered individual farms is producing both for the market and for the self-supply of households, but the importance of specialised commercial farms has been growing during the recent years. Their share in the total number of registered individual farms can be estimated as 25 per cent and they specialise as a rule on cash crop products. The average production area is 130 hectares, but income differentiation is wide-ranging within this group of farms. The lowest income strata (which represent about 50 per cent of these farms) receive eight times less income, than the highest one - represented by less than 2 per cent of cases.

One of the conditions of accession of Slovakia into the European Union is the existence of a developed land market. At present, the official land price is mostly used in the evaluation of agricultural land. The price was calculated on the basis of normative production and normative costs required to achieve such production. As the land market gradually develops, market prices come into being; reflecting the effect of real market forces. With the full-fledged market prices, the task of official prices will be just an informative one. The land market prices will gradually assume all the tasks of the current official prices of the agricultural land.

Inclusion of the countries in Central Europe (CECs) in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union raises a large number of issues, not the least in the context of the accession negotiations among the current EU member states and the newcomers. However, in the process of enlargement, negotiations will also be necessary with other countries. This is because both the EU and the accession candidates have commitments in the WTO and inclusion of the CECs in the CAP may affect the nature of these commitments, as well as the ability of the enlarged Union to honour them. The paper deals with the fundamental problems in connection with presented themes.

The sugar industry in the Czech Republic is one of the branches of food production that since the end of nineties has been strongly protected by agricultural policy. Here, we will deal with the question how the Czech agricultural policy affected the competitiveness of the sugar industry during transformation. From the analysis, it can be derived that not only agricultural measures but also organisational changes inside the enterprises, as well as modernisation and increasing capacity of plants that all took place before the enforced political aid, supported the stabilisation of sugar beet farming and the sugar industry in the Czech Republic and its competitiveness in the national market.

The paper analyses the pay system in a particular enterprise in the Czech Republic and proposes a change in this system. The establishment of two scales based on pay classes per month is proposed: one scale that allows for overlaps of pay classes but does not allow for overruns into other categories, and another scale that allows for no overlaps at all.

The article deals with the comparison and evaluation of the development of economic indicators, such as the costs, yields, economic result and profitability in the Czech and Slovak Republics for the period of years 1997-2000. The economic indicators are evaluated and compared on the basis of sample survey results of the RIAFE Bratislava and RIAE (Research Institute of Agricultural Economics) Prague. The first part contains the evaluation and comparison of the costs, yields and the economic results for agricultural production and its branches recalculated per 1 ha of agricultural land (a. l.). The second part contains the evaluation and comparison of the production intensity indicators (per hectare yields, utility), costs per 1 ha, 100 feeding days and per unit, and agricultural production realization prices. Based on these indicators, cost profitability of the selected plant and animal products is quantified.

The objective of the trial in the test station was to evaluate productive performance with respect to sire-line No. 101, 102, 103 in C-position for LWs × (LW×L) genotype in pigs. The productive performance as to growth capacity, feeding intake and quantitative traits of slaughter value was examinated for 136 hybrid pigs divided in three groups of offsprings of LWs boar No.101, 102,103. The feeding of all pigs were ad-libitum. On the base of obtained results, one could say that inside the LWs-breed, considerable differences exist between lines, importantly affecting the overall economics of fattening.

The actual trends of the political life in the Czech countryside
Enlargement of EU
Central-European perspectives
Social participation in rural areas. A comparative approach
The social development of Russian countryside under transformation and globalisation
Forty years of thinking about regional and rural development
Empirical approach to the research of social reality

This study deals with the founding and development of agrarian political parties and movements in selected postcommunist states (with the emphasis put on the Czech party system in the early 1990's). The topic is discussed from the point of view of classic political science theories, namely the historical conflict approach of Stein Rokkan and Seymour Martin Lipset, complemented with Derek Urwin's theory regarding emergence of agrarian parties as a means of defense of country against urbanization. The results of research into the urban - rural cleavage and its influence on the genesis of agrarian political parties in selected post-communist countries after 1989 seem to support the above mentioned theories (even though those were originally formulated for a much earlier period when the Western party systems were first coming into existence. These can be applied also to the Czech environment, where several profession-based political parties were established in the early 1990's, some of which were concerned with the defense of peasants' and farmers' interests. The attempts to create profession-based parties in the Czech political system were destined to fail for several reasons. The first was a striking ideological profiling of the bipolar party spectrum, causing general parties to pick up the themes and voters concerned with economic recession, and radicalization of electorate. The second reason lied in the diminishing numbers of potential voters, a result of agriculture modernization and general urbanization of society, which caused that the city-country conflict was reflected in the election results only marginally. The result was similar to other post-Soviet states, with a specific exception of Poland: agrarian parties and movements lost their former influence.