No 4/2011, December | Agris on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics

Analysis of Factors Affecting on Risk Management of Wheat Production Among Wheat Farmers (Razavieh Region, Khorasan-E-Razavi Province, Iran)

M. Sookhtanlo and V. Sarani No 4/2011, December

ABSTRACT

The main purpose of this study was to analyze the Factors Affecting on risk management in wheat production among farmers of Razavieh region (Khorasan-E-Razavi province, Iran). Statistical population of the study was 1520 farmers that they had water cultivation. By using of stratified proportional random sampling 156 respondents were selected from 8 villages. For the calculation of the risk-aversion coefficient degree among farmers, the Safety First Rule model was used. The findings revealed that the dominant respondents (65%) were risk-averse. The results of exploratory factorial analysis showed that five factors determined about 74.267 % from total variance for wheat farmers' risk management that consist of: economy & marketing management factor, planting management factor, harvest management factor, infrastructure management of farming and risk-sharing management factor. From among of the above mentioned factors, the most important factor of risk management in study region was factor of economy & marketing management.

KEYWORDS

Wheat farmers, Risk-aversion, Risk management, Drought, Agricultural extension.

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Assessment of agricultural land fund in the Czech Republic, importance and future

V. Voltr No 4/2011, December

ABSTRACT

Assessment of land depends on the production function of soil and additional connections given by environmental requirements, by the evaluation of public goods or by the requirements for formation a fair tax policy and even by the interests of landowners. Analysis of coherences during the soil appraisal shows a relatively strong dependence on the development of year-by-year yields and cost including subsidy policy, which is strongly reflected in the grasslands. Development of subsidies does not basically influence a long- term return and costs ratio for the production on arable land. The requirements for formation of prices are given due to the need for stability of the mutual relations between the quality of soil and climatic conditions, which manifests itself mainly in land consolidation or the categorization, useful for example for the determination of LFA. The comprehensive solution provides a system of land evaluation by cost-revenue relationships, which includes evaluation of environmental context on the base of the assessment of physical characteristics of soil and economic contexts in BPEJ categorization. The development of value system relations according to the proposed annual gross rental effects (HRRE) shows a relatively stable assessment of land fund for arable land. The adjusted system of land value permits preferably to express a pointed value of land, which corresponds to the trend of a points system of VÚMOP. The actual current rating BPEJ is proposed to make in dependence on the level of market prices to a one point. Due to the different trends in the market prices of arable land and grassland is proposed to introduce a separate assessment of arable land and grassland.

KEYWORDS

Soil evaluation; land value; production functions.

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Coherent Quantitative Analysis of Risks in Agribusiness: Case of Ukraine

A. Tarasov No 4/2011, December

ABSTRACT

Modern methods of quantitative risk analysis, specifically value-at-risk and expected shortfall approach, provide comprehensive and coherent risk evaluation throughout entire distribution of outcomes and can take agricultural business from the realm of uncertainty to specific, quantified risks. Monte Carlo simulation with autocorrelation of standard deviation shows the best results in risk modeling and is used for this research. The analysis showed that production risk is systemic within climatic regions of Ukraine with coefficients of correlation ranging from 0.25 to 0.85. Yield correlation among crops in several oblasts is low to negative, creating opportunities for diversification. However, positive price-yield correlation is dominant for agricultural products in Ukraine due to high dependency on global prices and a large share of export. It is hypothesized that price-yield correlation is directly proportional to the share of country’s international trade in that agricultural product.

KEYWORDS

Production risk, price risk, value-at-risk in agriculture, expected shortfall.

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Farmers Perception and Adaptation to Climate Change: An Estimation of Willingness to Pay

H. de-Graft Acquah E. E. Onumah No 4/2011, December

ABSTRACT

This paper assesses farmers’ perception and adaptation to climate change to enhance policy towards tackling the challenges climate change poses to the farmers in Ghana. With regards to farmers’ perception and methods of adaptation, majority of the farmers perceived increase in temperature and decrease in rainfall pattern. Farmers’ level of adaptation was found to be relatively high with majority of the farmers using changing planting dates, different crop varieties, soil conservation and water harvesting as the major adaptation measures to climate change impacts. However, access to water, high cost of adaptation, lack of information, lack of knowledge on adaptation, insecure property rights, insufficient access to inputs and lack of credits were identified as the major barriers to adaptation. The probit regression estimation results indicated that the probability of willingness to pay for climate change mitigation policies increases with age, years of education and ownership of farm land.

KEYWORDS

Perception, adaptation, climate change, willingnessto pay, probit regression.

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What determines the Czech land market prices? Some regional findings

T. Medonos V. Vilhelm M. Hruška L. Jelínek No 4/2011, December

ABSTRACT

The paper deals with the analysis of market land prices that were collected from land purchased contracts in the Czech Republic. Regression model was used to identify determinants explaining variability of market prices between 2008 and 2009. It was found out that type of plantation, region, type of buyers, plot size, distance to regional city or number of parcels play significant role. These factors explain more than a half of variance in land price. Quality of land that was expressed through administrative price has significant effect on market price. Yet, such effect became less import in regions nearby cities (e.g. Prague and Olomouc), where the market land price is significantly influenced by the distance to the district city. Land reform, however has not been confirmed to stimulate higher prices for sellers. It is reasonable to expect that part of the remaining variation could still be accounted for by non-random variables.

KEYWORDS

Land, market price, administrative price, regression model, region.

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Disaster Recovery Planning as part of Business Continuity Management

J. Pinta No 4/2011, December

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, a well functioning ICT infrastructure belongs to the most critical factors of companies across all branches of business. An importance of ensuring the continued operation of information systems, or the rapid recovery of the systems in the case of emergency, has increased. These needs require creating business continuity management plan and disaster recovery planning. This paper describes the creation of emergency and recovery plans and setting recovery objectives significantly affecting their efficiency.

KEYWORDS

Business Continuity Plan (BCP); Disaster Recovery (DR); Recovery Measures

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ICT helps to overcome disabilities

P. Benda Z. Havlíček V. Lohr and M. Havránek No 4/2011, December

ABSTRACT

As a result of technological progress ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) has created the so-called „digital divide“. Some people are unable to individually respond to this progress, but the proper use of ICT can help them overcome this handicap. One of the possibilities is to create accessible and usable applications depending on the character and level of disability. In accordance with the European CertiAgri project, e-learning tools are used for integrating people with disabilities into the horticultural area. The paper specifically describes examples of simple teaching aids from the practical „green care“ course, which focus on the skills of people with mental disabilities.

KEYWORDS

ICT, mental disability, educational materials, CertiAgri, accessibility, usability.

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New Version of the AGRIS Web Portal – Overcoming the Digital Divide by Providing Rural Areas with Relevant Information

P. Šimek J. Vaněk J. Jarolímek M. Stočes T. Vogeltanzová No 4/2011, December

ABSTRACT

The present paper brings the outcomes of the second stage of a complex AGRIS web portal upgrade (technological, functional, content and design upgrade) called Agris 5.0. The Agris 5.0 version is recently being tested and will be launched in January 2012 on http://www.agris.cz. Agris 5.0 is built and runs on Microsoft technologies (MS Windows Server 2008, MS IIS 7 web server, MS SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition, SP2) using the Model-View-Controller (MVC) SW architectural pattern version 3, .NET framework 4, programming language C#, Razor template system, XML and XHTML 1.1 markup languages, CSS 2.1 styles and JavaScript encoding with the jQuery framework. From the user point of view, the Agris portal usability and availability meeting international standards were the utmost priority of the present upgrade.

KEYWORDS

Agris, portal, MVC, digital divide, agrarian sector, rural areas, information resource.

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