No 2/2012, June

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No 2/2012, June

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Czech Republic`s Self-sufficiency in Case of Pork Meat and Its Impact on Trade Balance Development

Z. Gebeltova No 2/2012, June

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes self-sufficiency in pork production in the Czech Republic, predicts its size till the 2013, and identifies factors that were significantly influencing the increasing volume of imports of pig meat in the Czech Republic during the referred years 2003 to 2011. The paper uses Index of competitive advantage RCA for the evaluation of competitiveness on the pork meat market.It was found out that the pig meat self-sufficiency went down – from 96.23 % in 2003 to 63.83 % in 2010. RCA index reached negative values of -15.82 in 2011, in comparison with the year 2003 when the RCA index showed value of +90.23.This paper is a part of a research project undertaken by the authors on the topic „Economics of resources of the Czech agriculture and their efficient use in the frame of multifunctional agri-food systems”, the grant No. 6046070906, funded by the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic.

KEYWORDS

Self-sufficiency, pig meat, competitiveness, prediction, agrarian market, Germany, price.

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Effect of Macroeconomic Variables on the Ghanaian Stock Market Returns: A Co-integration Analysis

J. K. M. Kuwornu No 2/2012, June

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the effect of macroeconomic variables on the Ghanaian stock market returns using monthly data over period January 1992 to December, 2008. Macroeconomic variables used in this study are consumer price index (as a proxy for inflation), crude oil price, exchange rate and 91 day Treasury bill rate (as a proxy for interest rate). The study employs the Johansen Multivariate Co-integration Procedure. The empirical results reveal that there is co-integration between the four macroeconomic variables and stock returns in Ghana indicating long run equilibrium relationship. Further, the results reveal that; in the short run, Treasury Bill Rate significantly influences the stock returns, with and an elasticity of 0.005, implying that a 1% rise in the Treasury bill rate will lead to a 0.005% rise in the stock returns. The inflation rate is also significant at 1% with elasticity -0.135744, implying that a 1% increase in inflation rate will decrease stock returns by 0.14 %. The residual value of 0.785548 of the Error Correction Model indicates that about 79% of the deviations of the stock returns are corrected in the short run, which is quite high and encouraging for an emerging market like the Ghana Stock Exchange. In the long run, however, the stock returns are significantly influenced by Inflation rate, Crude oil prices, Exchange rate, and Treasury bill rate, with elasticities of 0.5479, -0.03021, 0.05213, and 0.00322 respectively. Crude oil price is negatively related to stock returns; 1% rise in Crude oil prices will decrease returns by 0.03%. Also a 1% increase in inflation rate increases stock returns by 0.54%; and a 1% rise in exchange rate increases stock returns by 0.052%. The effect of Treasury bill rate is highly inelastic with elasticity of 0.003. In both the short run and the long run results, inflation rate appears to be the most influential macroeconomic variable affecting stock market returns in Ghana. The results also reveal that investors are not compensated for inflationary increases in the short run, but are compensated in the long run. These results have implications for financial analysts, fund managers and policy makers.

KEYWORDS

Stock market returns, inflation rate, crude oil price, exchange rate, interest rate, Cointegration Analysis, Ghana.

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Agricultural Resource Access and the Influence of Socioeconomic Characteristics Among Rural Women in Borno State, Nigeria

C. O. OjoC.Y. BilaA. C. Iheanacho No 2/2012, June

ABSTRACT

Agricultural resource access and the influence of socioeconomic characteristics among women in Borno State, Nigeria was the main objective of this study. The data for the study were generated by the use of structured questionnaire which was administered to 266 respondents obtained by the use of multistage random sampling technique. The techniques used to analyze the data generated for this study were descriptive statistics and the binary logistic regression analyses. The major findings of the study showed that respondent’s socioeconomic characteristics indicated high levels of illiteracy (59.4%), non-membership of cooperatives (89.8%), no extension contact (72%) and low access to credit (89.4%). Access to production resources including fertilizers, agrochemicals, family and hired laours and land ownership were low. Some socio- economic factors influenced the likelihood of women’s access to production resources. These factors included cooperative membership, years of schooling, farm income, extension contact, off-farm income, family size, age, farming experience and farm size. It was recommended that agricultural development planners should work at enhancing rural women’s access to socioeconomic factors which enhance their access to production resources for more efficient agricultural productivity.

KEYWORDS

Access, agriculture, Borno State, production resources, rural area, socioeconomic characteristics, women.

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Czech Republic as an Important Producer of Poppy Seed

P. ProcházkaL. Smutka No 2/2012, June

ABSTRACT

Poppy seed (Papaver somniferum l.) is an important oilseed, whose cultivation has a long tradition in the Czech Republic. Poppy seed grown in the Czech Republic has good quality and, therefore, is preferred to poppy seeds in other parts of the world. The objective of this paper is to characterize the current position of the Czech poppy seed production and foreign trade in the world. Czech Republic is the main world producer of poppy seed and price maker of the European and world prices. With regards to trade, the Czech Republic is also the main producer and seller both in Europe and in the world. The poppy seed crop grown in the Czech Republic is mainly produced for exports, because the domestic consumption consists of only between four and five thousand tons. Major export markets of Czech poppy seed are European countries with a population of Slavic origin or those influenced by Slavic cuisine. Another important markets are overseas countries, that were settled by Slavic immigrants. The paper stresses out the position of the Czech Republic as a major player in the world market with poppy seed. The paper provides analysis of the market position of the Czech production and Czech foreign trade participation. Development of production and trade, as well as some other factors affecting the poppy seed economy, are analyzed such as prices, hectarage, yields, volume of production and volume of trade.This paper is part of a research project carried out by the authors within the grant no. 6046070906, funded by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic.

KEYWORDS

Poppy seed, production, trade, import, export, world market, comparative advantage, kilogram prices.

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The Role of Transgenic Crops in the Future of Global Food and Feed

H. ŘezbováO. Škubna No 2/2012, June

ABSTRACT

The paper is aimed on the problematic of biotech crops planting (GM, transgenic crops). The main aim of this paper is to analyze the trends in the main biotech crops planting groups in the sense of their use for food and feed in the future. The selected groups of biotech crops analyzed in this article are soybeans, maize (corn), cotton and rapeseed (canola). The used methods are chain and basic indexes and regression analysis of times series/ trend data - for predicting on next four years (2012-2015). The trends are able to determine the necessity of implementation the biotech crops planting into the agricultural systems everywhere (also in EU) and it is without the questions if the impact are mainly positive or negative. The dependence of world agricultural commodity market on the biotech crops is undeniable and the prediction acknowledges that the importance is increasing. Pieces of knowledge introduced in this paper resulted from solution of an institutional research intention MSM 6046070906 „Economics of resources of Czech agriculture and their efficient use in frame of multifunctional agri-food systems“.

KEYWORDS

Transgenic crops, biotech crops, GMO, trends, production, food, feed.

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The Evaluation of Use and Quality of Public E-services among Enterprises

M. UlmanJ. JarolímekA. VasilenkoE. Kánska No 2/2012, June

ABSTRACT

The paper deals with the quality evaluation of electronic services. The European Commission eGovernment benchmarking effort is reviewed and the current level of use of basic electronic services for enterprises is compared between EU 27 member countries and the Czech Republic. Then, the most frequently used services are evaluated among 452 enterprises in the Czech Republic. The evaluation was based on a method CBG (Communication between Business and Government) that has been developed at the Department of information technologies at the Faculty of Economic and Management at Czech University of Life Sciences (CULS) in Prague. Results of the survey are compared to prior surveys, Czech Statistical Office and Eurostat surveys. Pieces of knowledge introduced in this paper resulted from solution of an institutional research intention MSMT 6046070906 „Economics of resources of Czech agriculture and their efficient use in frame of multifunctional agri-food systems“.

KEYWORDS

Evaluation of quality, state authorities, public administration, CBG method, electronic service.

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Resource-use Efficiency in Cashew Production in Wenchi Municipality, Ghana

C. A. WongnaaD. Ofori No 2/2012, June

ABSTRACT

The study considered the determinants of cashew production with special reference to cashew production in Wenchi Municipality of Brong-Ahafo Region of Ghana. Data collection was through well structured questionnaire administered on 140 respondents selected through random sampling technique. The methods of analysis used were descriptive statistics and production function analysis using the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) criterion. Results showed that majority of the farmers were ageing and there was high level of illiteracy as about 61.4% of total respondents had no formal education. Results further showed that farm size, capital, fertilizer and pesticides are positively related to cashew output while labour is inversely related. Also, the farmers were inefficient in the use of resources. Land, fertilizer and pesticide were underutilized while labour and capital were over utilized. Farmers should be encouraged to increase the use of land, fertilizers and pesticides so as to increase productivity.

KEYWORDS

Production function, Cobb-Douglas, resource-use, Cashew.

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