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The post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy targets at supporting small and medium-sized farms. Capping and redistribution of direct payments would have a direct impact on the economic viability of farms. Calculation of economic income is a reasonable way how to calculate the economic viability of firms. However, accounting profit has been preferred for its estimation so far. The article aims to compare the income from accounting and economic point of view and reveal how much the results differ across the EU. The literature review, an empirical analysis based on Farm Accountancy Data Network (2016-2018), and a clustered heat map were applied. The results provide clear evidence of high variability of opportunity costs when calculating the economic viability in the EU, especially between countries with small intensive farms and some post-communist countries where larger farms dominate.

The research article's primary aim was to provide a comprehensive and systematic view of a new dimension of logistics in the form of logistics innovations in agricultural enterprises in Slovakia. The intention thereof was to define and then analyse selected logistics innovations in agricultural enterprises. The research object was formed by 95 agricultural enterprises in Slovakia. A questionnaire was used as the research instrument. MS Excel and IBM SPSS Statistics 20 were used to process the data in the questionnaire. The univariate descriptive statistics and multivariate descriptive statistics were used to interpret the data. The research results were tested and evaluated by means of Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Medium-sized agricultural enterprises in Slovakia represented the largest segment (68%) of the study. The agricultural enterprises mostly understand the use of smart technologies as an innovation in logistics (mean = 4.43). The results of the research showed that the analysed agricultural enterprises intend to innovate mainly the production logistics (mean = 3.20). Out of the logistics processes, the agricultural enterprises want to innovate mostly the inventory management (mean = 4.55). Lean logistics is the most frequently implemented logistics innovation in agricultural enterprises (mean = 3.64). The hypothesis testing has proven that there is a statistically significant relationship between the utilisation of lean logistics and production logistics innovation. In addition, it was proven that there is a statistically significant relationship between the utilisation of radio frequency identification (RFID) and the logistics process innovation - inventory management.

The contribution is focused on the food problem in the least developed countries, on the chosen areas where the overall situation is the most problematic. It deals with Burundi, belonging to the low income food deficit countries with one of the world's lowest rates of the gross domestic product per capita. The paper defines the food security situation in the global connection, representing a wide complex of economic, social, demographic, technologic and political aspects of production, distribution, shift and consumption of foodstuffs. The inter-related causes of food insecurity are mainly the long lasting civil wars, a limited access to land, environmental degradation, climatic shocks and the rapid population growth resulting from the high birth rates and the return of refugees. Subsistence crops and livestock products represent the main source of income for most households. The performance of these subsectors is very low, and generates chronic food deficits. Agriculture is thus the key sector in the predominantly rural economies and there is still a significant room for growth, diversification, increasing productivity and improving competitiveness.

The paper investigates the innovation process in the Hungarian agri-food sector using the concept of open innovation. The empirical analysis is based on the data from a 2011 survey of more than 200 small and medium size agricultural producers, food processors and retailers. There is determined the impact of open innovation and a company's absorptive capacity on the innovation performance employing two stage approaches. First, a cluster analysis is applied to categorise companies based on their open innovation absorptive capacity, firm and managerial characteristics. Second, using semi-non parametric probit models, there is found that open innovation positively influences the innovation performance for the product and market innovation. Estimations indicate that the absorptive capacity has positive impacts on the technological- and organisational innovation and on innovation propensity. The results suggest that there exists a considerable heterogeneity both within and between the supply chain segments regarding to the innovation performance.

The article analyses the potential expenditures that would be required in order to make the agrarian web information source (the areas of agriculture, food industry, forestry, water management) accessible from the mobile devices. The following approaches were analysed: creating of the responsive layout for mobile web browsers, creating a native application for the Android platform, and creating three native applications in the cross platform environment for the Android, iOS and Windows Phone. The experimental evaluation was performed using the Agrarian WWW portal AGRIS (www.agris.cz), which is one of the most visited online information source in the Czech Republic for covering the areas of agriculture, regional, and countryside development.

Nutritional values of different foodstuffs have been examined in various studies on a number of occasions. However, so far, little attention has been paid to the legal aspects of introducing edible insects in the European Union. Yet, the rearing of this mini-livestock for food and feed has a potential of developing into a new agricultural sector, which is sustainable, unlike the breeding of the traditional livestock. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the legal background of authorizing edible insects in the European Union, taking into account the environmental impacts thereof. At present, the Member States are free to regulate this field, however, only until the transitional period established by the European Union (EU) rules has expired, since the EU wide regulation for authorizing edible insects is to be introduced as of 1st January 2018.

Agricultural R&D has been identified as an important determinant of economic output in the agricultural sector. Surprisingly, in previous studies, spatial spillover associated with R&D spending in the agricultural sector has not been taken into account. This paper investigates the effects of spatial spillover of agricultural R&D on regional economic growth across EU-28 NUTS-II regions in the period 1995-2014. In particular, we extend previous studies by considering spillover in all sectors of agricultural R&D performance including business enterprise, government and higher education. The spatial Durbin panel data model is employed to estimate brooders effect including direct and indirect effects. Empirical results show a positive effect of agricultural R&D and its spatial spillover on regional growth in all performance sectors. Moreover, the impact of spatial spillover of agricultural R&D on regional growth depends on the performance of the R&D sectors; positive spillovers are stronger in the business enterprise sector. Finally, the interaction effect between the economic output of the agricultural sector of each region with that of its neighbours is significantly positive.

Since the last decade, significant changes have occurred in the trade flows of agri-food products of the Southeastern European countries (SEE) due to adjustment to international market. Namely, as all countries of the SEE strive to be full members of the EU; market opportunities have been changing, primarily because of the reduced barriers on trade with the EU, as well as with the regional countries. In order to investigate the effects of the liberalization process of the agri-food sector of the SEE countries on their export, as well as the total foreign trade, a gravity model based on panel data in the period 2005-2015 has been estimated. According to the results, liberalization of the market in the SEE countries, as a consequence of the EU enlargement process, as well as regional integrations, had positive effects on the total foreign trade of agri-food products. Despite the positive liberalization effects on the agri-food trade, all SEE countries have a lower level of competitiveness than the EU countries, so an organized access to products which possess comparative advantages will be an important condition for the achievement of their particular positions at the international market.

The main purpose of this study was to analyse the opinions of farmers in the province of Almería concerning the state of the fruit and vegetable sector, to learn about the main considerations in their decision-making processes when marketing their products and their assessment of the image of companies and cooperatives and to analyse the social structure of this collective. To that end, the analysis was conducted on three levels: a descriptive analysis on two levels - a quantitative analysis of the socio-demographic, socio-economic and marketing characteristics of farmers in the province of Almería and a qualitative analysis based on the opinions of farmers and a group of experts in the sector; and an explanatory analysis, based on a binary logistic regression model, to show how decision-making occurs in the marketing dialectic, whether it either be at the source (auction) or the end-point (cooperative). The conclusion is that the marketing variables that are most tied to context - such as price, timeframe or certification - better explain the decision-making process of farmers in the province of Almería when marketing their products, both for cooperative members and for those who sell their products in alhóndigas (traditional auction houses).

The use of fossil fuels raises serious environmental concerns and causes major adverse effects such as the ocean level rise and the increased occurrence of hurricanes. To alleviate such problems, a global movement towards the generation of renewable energy is considered to be an effective way to help reducing the global greenhouse gas emissions and to sustain social development. Bioenergy is one attractive renewable energy source in Taiwan because a substantial amount of cropland has been released after the participation in the World Trade Organization (WTO). This study proposes two dynamic agricultural sector models to analyse how changes in the land fertility affect agricultural activities and bioenergy development. The analytical result indicates that economic incentives such as the direct subsidy and tax credit can be used to maintain a desired fertility level. In addition, the objectives of bioenergy development must be defined in advance because changes in discount rates and planning horizons have considerable influences on the effectiveness of policies.

Agricultural growth is closely associated with sustainable economic development. This is especially true from the perspective of developing countries, such as India and Pakistan, where significant portions of the labour force are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. This study analysed the impact of macroeconomic policy (i.e. monetary policy) on employment, food inflation, and agricultural growth by analysing to what extent monetary policy is effective in controlling food price inflation, the effect of contractionary monetary policy on the agricultural sector's employment and productivity, and the extent of monetary policy transmission to money market rates and 10-year interest rates. We did so by applying a factor-augmented vector autoregressive model proposed by Bernanke et al. (2005) to agricultural data from 1995 and 1996 to 2016 for India and Pakistan, respectively. We found that tight monetary policy significantly reduced food inflation and agricultural production while increasing the rural unemployment rate. Short-term and 10-year interest rates increased owing to the contractionary monetary policies pursued by both countries. An inclusive monetary policy whereby policymakers work alongside governments to achieve price stabilisation and reasonable employment rates is recommended.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) emphasizes the right of everyone to have access to safe, sufficient and nutritious food in its Rome Declaration. This article suggests how this noble FAO goal can be achieved. We suggest that a first step could be the introduction of a global meat tax, where the size of the negative externalities from meat production could be calculated based on foresight and big data. Applying the tool of a global meat tax will lead to a "double dividend" as negative externalities are reduced and at the same time huge tax revenues will be generated which could be used to make further steps in the direction of achieving the stated FAO goal in the Rome Declaration.

For at least 25 years, processes involving structural changes have been growing more and more intense in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, with these processes including a decline in the number of small farms. The main aim of this paper is to present the mechanisms involved in, as well as barriers to and costs preventing the exit of farms from agriculture, including those that make it difficult to transfer production resources which are being released to other companies. This research takes the form of an overview and is based on the output of new institutional economics, and on transaction cost and rent-seeking theories in particular. The most frequent difficulties encountered in the process of exit from farming include low profitability of production and the shortage of capital among potential buyers, while the lack of sellers' financial resources and the necessity of incurring expenses related to preparing and finalising the sale of resources held by them (the actual transaction costs related to closing down farms) are frequently overlooked. The most important barriers preventing the complete liquidation of farms are the inherent transaction costs categorised as expenses, as well as the emotional costs and costs of alternatives, which are difficult to evaluate and estimate. The following notions are particularly helpful in explaining barriers to exit from farming: the concept of transaction costs and rent-seeking theory, which are both a part of the stream of thought of new institutional economics.

Land, water, sun, infrastructure, capital and know-how are needed for any agricultural development. Sub-Saharan Africa has immense natural resources, though often not immediately available altogether in the same place, but is generally short of the other inputs. That is why a public-private partnership can be an effective approach to deal the projects with modern agricultural development: public partner provides land, most of the infrastructure and finance; private partners provide the intensive farming practice, processing know-how and part of the equity. Financial analysis of lower and higher capital demanding scenarios and testing of the impact of changes in the critical drivers of costs and revenues shown that a combination of staple crops and cash crops can be found to balance national food security policy targets and financial appeal for private partners in a mutually satisfactory venture capital. The effect of environmental and infrastructural constraints was also considered, showing how likely-to-happen threats on the side of the implementation of the project may turn into challenging opportunity to climb the agribusiness value chain upward.

The measures of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and Regional (Cohesion) Policy are aimed at achieving cohesion, i.e. reducing the economic (sectoral), social and territorial disparities at European Union level. The issue of rural areas has become an important part of the CAP measures in Pillar 2. Since the CAP does not have a primarily territorial orientation, it does not contribute to territorial cohesion of rural areas. In a similar vein, regional policy, which is primarily oriented towards territorial development, also failed to give rise to complete, balanced development. Using qualitative analysis, this article summarises references selected on the basis of the authors' experience in policy issues. The types of discourse included on the subject of coherence of common policies are the role of agricultural, rural and regional policy in cohesion and the conflict of cohesion and competitiveness objectives. Modern political and economic efforts of converging competitiveness into the macro concept with spatial implication result in planning and implementation of inappropriate measures and instruments intended to encourage the balanced territorial development of the EU. From this arises a conflict of cohesion and competitiveness, coupled with long-term consequences for the most vulnerable areas.

The study analyses the correlations among different economies of selected EU-12 member states based on comparison of agricultural economics variances, namely the output value of the agricultural industry, productivity of input, agricultural gross value added, subsidies on production, agricultural labour input and agricultural income per annual working unit in the period of 2010-2016, based on the Special Program for Social Sciences, as statistical methods. The EU-12 achieved a higher increase in productivity of input, output value of agricultural industry, agricultural gross valued added, as well as agricultural income per agricultural annual working unit compared to the average results of EU-28 for 2010-2016. The output value of agricultural industry and agricultural gross value added per intermediate consumption decreased by 1.35% and by 3.3%, but the factor income - net value added at factor cost - per annual working unit increased by 21%, because of the subsidies on production increased by 3.4% for 2010-2016. In EU-28, the factor income per annual working unit increased, but most of this income was for developing agricultural production technology.

Common wheat, a fundamental commodity on international markets, is increasingly differentiated into commercial types on domestic markets to meet the demand of processing companies. Improver wheat, biscuit wheat, ordinary and superior bread-making wheat are commercial varieties with specific technological characteristics. Wheat farming systems are constantly evolving, and as a result, related environmental issues emerge. We applied an LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) analysis, where the functional unit was 1 tonne of grain for each typology and system boundaries were from cradle to farm gate. Primary data were used in the study, and special attention was paid to fertiliser use. From an LCA perspective, our findings show that nitrogen (N) plays an essential role in plant production although producing different waterborne and airborne emissions and nitrate leaching, for the 4 commercial typologies studied. Furthermore, the impact can be differentiated based on the technological features of the commercial types. Our results led us to observe that the four wheat types show contrasting economic and environmental performances.

A number of variables influences potatoes growing, including natural conditions, used growing technologies and market conditions. The most important parameters for the production of potatoes crops are yield, farmer's price, subsidies and costs. All these parameters can change over time. This means that managers of farms must constantly assess the key parameters affecting the economic outturn and analyse the degree of risk of their achievement. This article analyses the economic risks of potatoes cultivation based on statistical data obtained over the last 10 years. The Monte Carlo stochastic simulation method was used to analyse the risk of gross profits. The results of the calculations confirmed the considerable variability and risk of growing potatoes in the climate conditions of the Czech Republic in general, and especially regarding the first early potatoes and potatoes for starch production.

The main purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed overview of the theoretical insights and recent development trends on risk in agriculture. It focuses on the synthesis and analysis of the research studies published over the period from 2008 through 2018 and aims to identify major findings obtained over the recent decade and determine the areas for future research. This paper reviews a total of 397 unique publications retrieved from the international journals accessible in the Web of Science database. Based on different criteria deployed by the scientometric analysis, the selected articles have been reviewed and classified. The bibliometric analysis includes the citation volumes, authors, names of journals, research areas, affiliations, and contributing countries. The network analysis includes the examination of keywords. This article provides an opportunity for scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers to understand and manage risk in agriculture and at the same time presents a roadmap for future research in this field.

The causes of food price spikes are complex, and their impact on different countries varies depending on production levels and the varied policies in place. Countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus (CAC) region have implemented a wide range of reforms that vary in form and speed. The existing scientific literature reports about the consequences of price spikes in CAC; however, to date, a comparison of impact between those countries has not been made in terms of the entire supply chain perspective. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of the price spikes on the entire wheat supply chain for the first time in CAC and discusses the role of policies. Another contribution of this study is an evidence-based analysis of the role of policy reformation in maintaining food security under price shocks. Our results indicate a very limited effect of price interventions and trade restrictions on dampening wheat prices in all countries. We find that only trade diversification policy had a positive effect on reducing the level of price spikes, and thus it might be a suitable policy measure for maintaining food security.

The paper aims to investigate family farm income volatility by decomposing disposable farm income (DFI) into the on-farm income, income from production support and off-farm income (OFI) over time. The research is focused on the OFI, assessing its role in achieving DFI above reference level based on the average net earnings. Three main indicators consistent with Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) were indicated. The research results revealed the significance of OFI. In 2017, 76% of the family farms were engaged in off-farm activities indicating, on one hand that such approaches as part-time farming or lifestyle farming are becoming more attractive to Lithuanian family farmers. On the other hand, research disclosed that farms mostly engaged in off-farm activities yield the lowest on-farm income levels. Moreover, the OFI tends to produce a stabilizing effect on quite a number of farmers as the majority of family farms cannot rely upon the on-farm income as their only income source. Thus, the agricultural and rural development policy makers, aimed at supporting viable farm income and strengthening farm resilience, have to answer the part-time farmers' needs.

This paper quantifies the correlation between U.S. season average prices for hops with U.S. hop stocks and U.S. hop hectarage. The Hop Equilibrium Ratio, a measure of the supply/demand relationship for U.S. hops, was introduced. Through the Bayesian inference method, the authors used these data to calculate the effect an incremental change to one metric had on the probability of directional changes of future U.S. season average prices (SAP). Between 2010 and 2020, the dominance of proprietary varieties created unprecedented cartel-like powers offering opportunities for supply- and price-management. Research results will enable more accurate forecasting and greater price stability in the hop industry.

The main objective of the study is to compare the organisational culture of the selected companies in the manufacturing sector and to identify and measure the perceived organisational culture and its various dimensions. 70 responses to a 4 point scale questionnaire based on the OCTAPACE profile developed by Udai Pareek were obtained from 2 organisations in the NCR. The result shows that the executives and non- executives perceive the culture differently. The study helps in identifying the weaker aspects of culture in terms of values and beliefs that prevail in the organisation. Once the diagnosis of the culture is done to identify how much each item is valued, the management gets an opportunity to work upon the identified weaker aspects, on the basis of the degree of correlation between the various elements of the OCTAPACE profile for developing and maintaining a better organisational culture to achieve the desired performance and to sustain competition in the long run.

The present study has investigated the country specific determinants of the vertical and total intra-industry trade between Iran and its main trading partners (including 24 countries) in the agricultural products group during the time period 2001-2007. For this purpose, first we have measured the types of the intra-industry trade. Then we have examined the determinants of the vertical and total intra-industry trade in the agricultural sector by using the panel technique. Based on the obtained results, it has confirmed that economic development (both per capita income and HDI) has a positive and significance effect on the Iran's bilateral intra-industry trade. Also, the results verify the Linder hypothesis. In sum, the Iran's foreign trade in agricultural sector is mainly based on comparative advantage. Specifically, there is a negative and significant relationship between the revealed comparative advantage and the industry trade. In addition, the endowment of land affects positively the high vertical intra-industry trade. Also according to the results, the size market differences impact the intra-industry trade negatively.

Development of the agricultural sector prior to 1989 in Slovakia, such as in most countries of the Central and Eastern Europe, was affected by the collectivization realized on the principle of the central planning. The main objective became the quantity, while quality and efficiency had only a secondary importance. Entering into a new market environment after 1990 meant for agricultural enterprises complicated structural, economic and social changes. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the economic performance of agricultural entities depending on their legal form in Slovakia. We assume that the legal form or the way of organizing and management of processes within the agricultural enterprises has an impact on the economic performance of the agricultural subjects. The analysis confirmed the assumptions. On the basis of the testing results, it was found that business companies show a higher rate of economic success measured by the selected economic indicators.

The supply of fast, accessible and high-quality information to individual users is the key aspect of information assurances of the agricultural sector. This aspect is closely related to the so-called information need. The paper aims to evaluate the current state of the information needs and information support and their impacts on small farms in the Czech Republic. There is a strong necessity to improve the economic performance of farms in the Czech Republic. Moreover, the need for the introduction of new ICT in farming and farm management has rapidly increased at present. In farming, the ICT directly supports the operational agricultural activities and it can also serve as an interactive and flexible tool for monitoring the progress of the farm economic performance. The analysis of the current state of the issue of information needs and dispositions among Czech farms was based on the questionnaire survey. We obtained 165 correctly filled answers from agricultural enterprises. Survey results are analysed with descriptive statistics, frequency tables, the clustering analysis and the correlation analysis. The results show that with 95% probability: (1) The level of the information needs is related to the current state of the ICT and the decision support system at the farm, (2) The influence of the information need level to the level of new technologies usage was not confirmed, (3) Legislation issues represent a crucial part of the information needs of agricultural subjects, (4) Large enterprises with more than 500 ha have a much better level of the information support than the companies with fewer hectares, (5) Companies with less than three employees face problems with their information support, (6) Czech farms in average use advanced ICT and information systems, and (7) The farmer's decision-making is not strongly facilitated through the ICT.

Liberalization of the market, as a consequence of the achieved trade agreements with the members of the European Union and the Central European Free Trade Association, had a significant effect on the foreign trade exchange of the Serbian agri-food products. In order to determine the liberalization effects on the export of agri-food products of Serbia, a gravity model of the export of these products is estimated using econometric methods for the panel data. In order to find the sections, as well as the advantageous parts of the international market, the comparative advantages of agri-food products in the particular groups of countries are dynamically analysed using the index of the revealed comparative advantages, whereas the level of specialization in the international trade exchange of these products is analysed using the index of the intra-industry trade. In relation to the main objective of the article, which was to identify the effects of the foreign trade liberalization on the performances of the foreign trade in agri-food products, it may be stated that liberalization had positive effects on the intensification of foreign trade with the analysed group of countries, as well as on the increase of the revealed comparative advantages of the agri-food sector in the world market.

The growing importance and relevance of ICT in business increases the dependence of business entities on ICTs, to which the managers of agricultural enterprises need to pay the necessary attention. The penetration of ICTs also affects the companies that do business in the area of agriculture. High quality and accessible information today has a strategic economic and social importance for the management of this sector; therefore, the use of ICTs by the company managers is becoming an essential part of their daily lives. In their work, the managers of agricultural enterprises most often use a personal computer. The intensity of the laptop use is increasing and thanks to the mobility and connectivity, smartphones are also getting ahead. The use of these devices closely involves operating and application software. The most popular operating system is Windows. In terms of applications, the managers most often use the most popular package MS Office. The research involves an analysis of the intensity of the ICT use by managers with emphasis on agricultural enterprises in the Slovak Republic. The scientific article presents the results of an implemented survey focusing on the intensity of the ICT use by managers and the verification of the hypothesis of a significant influence of a manager's job position on the intensity of the ICT use in the company.

Agribusiness is the biggest production sector in the European Union taking into account both the value of turnover and the creation of added value as well as employment size. In this context, the food industry deserves a special distinction. In the publication, the analyses of the food industry competitiveness in Poland are presented. For analysing and assessing competitiveness of the Polish food industry, the following factors were used: the orientation of export (OE), covering of import by export (TC), the import penetration (MP) and the revealed comparative advantages according to the Balassa (RCA) and Lafay (LFI). The study also presents the findings of empirical research on an innovative character of the food industry in Poland.