No 1/2012, March

The Problem Of Youth Unemployment in Rural Area

ABSTRACT

The development of Czech agricultural labour market has been continuously predominantly negative since 1989 and recently, the problem of youth unemployment is acute in many countries, not only in the Czech Republic, but also in the Russian Federation, where most of graduates of agricultural universities work in non-agricultural sphere and in urban area. The present paper tries to consider the problems faced by youth in the labour market after graduating from the university, the reasons for working in any sphere but not in agriculture and not in rural area. It identifies the factors influencing the profession choice by young people. It considers the opportunities for attracting young people to work in agriculture and rural aria.

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Analysis of financial support influences on management of agricultural enterprises

ABSTRACT

The paper deals with monitoring of a height, a structure and impact of supports in frame of exercitation of EU CAP on income from operations of selected Czech agricultural enterprises. The selection of enterprises has been implemented on base of differentness in the enterprise form, in the acreage of managed farm land and a differentiation of the enterprise subject. From a comparison of volume and structure of the supports it results that an agricultural cooperative uses a wide spectrum of particular types of subsidies, which is caused by a big acreage of almost 7 800 ha with orientation to both the plant and the animal productions. Similar situation is in the valued joint-stock company. Without received subsidies the economy of private farmer would be unprofitable in both the years. In monitoring it was proved that differentiation of enterprise activity in form of raw material process in excess of framework of agricultural basic industry decreases dependence of the income from operations on obtained financial means in form of supports. From the mentioned facts it is obvious that the received financial subsidies significantly positively influenced the operating results of all agricultural enterprises where the basic activity subject is plant and animal production.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.“

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Factors Affecting Intercropping and Conservation Tillage Practices in Eeastern Ethiopia

ABSTRACT

In order to combat adverse effects of farmland degradation it is necessary for farmers to adopt sustainable land management and conservation strategies like intercropping and conservation tillage. However, efforts to adopt these strategies are very minimal in Ethiopia. In an attempt to address the objectives of examining factors affecting use of intercropping and conservation tillage practices, this study utilized plot- and household-level data collected from 211 farm households and employed a bivariate probit model for its analysis. The study revealed that intercropping and conservation tillage decisions are interdependent, and that they are also significantly affected by various factors. In addition, conservation tillage and intercropping practices as short- term interventions are found to augment the long-term interventions like terraces, diversion ditches, and tree plantations. The paper highlights important policy implications that are required to encourage intercropping and conservation tillage measures.

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Investigation the Role of Exchange Rate Volatility on Iran‘s Agricultural Exports (Case Study: Date, Pistachio and Saffron)

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.

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Examination of existence of the law of one price at Czech meat markets

ABSTRACT

This paper deals with the problem of the law of one price. The topic is examined on wholesaler level of pig meat and beef meat agri-food chains in the Czech Republic. The aim of the paper is to examine whether the law of one price holds at these markets. To fulfill the aim the multivariate time series analysis is employed, concretely co-integration analysis and Vector error correction model (VECM). The analysis is based on time series of wholesale price in individual regions of the Czech Republic which contain bi-weekly data in period from May 2004 to June 2011. The analysis shows that the law of one price does not hold at both markets. However, if the transaction costs are omitted there might be found some regions where it works. Finally, some dominant as well as submissive regions were detected at both pig meat as well as beef meat market.

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Online Web portal of competence-based training opportunities for Organic Agriculture

ABSTRACT

A number of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools such as web portals, learning portals and course management platforms have been developed and used in order to support EU-funded research and training projects in the area of Organic Agriculture (OA). This tools transfer the technological infrastructure needed in order to facilitate specific tasks, such as the organization of educational, research and information content, like the competences, learning opportunities, certificates and vocational opportunities. This paper presents the case of the CerOrganic Web portal (http://portal.cerorganic.eu), which is used for providing access to resources related to vocational education and training in the context of OA.

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