No 3/2012, September | Agris on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics

EVA and its Determinants for Selected Groups of Farms: Conventional and Organic Farming

R. Aulová M. Frýdlova No 3/2012, September

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes the economic value added, as well as its determining factors, for selected groups of agricultural enterprises - legal persons, farming in conventional and organic ways. The impact of the weighted average cost of capital to the value of EVA, as well as the efficient use of invested capital, including capital structure, in relation to farming, are both evaluated. The article also aims to verify the hypothesis that selected farms are able to achieve, without subsidies, particularly direct payments, positive economic value added and an efficient use of capital.The panel data set we use is drawn from the database of the Creditinfo Company Monitor, collected by Creditinfo Czech Republic, s.r.o. Specifically, we use information from the final accounts of chosen farms in the years 2006 - 2010. This paper is part of the research grant IGA 20121069, „Identification of the major determinants of the farm profits of legal persons and a determination of their specific characteristics”.

KEYWORDS

Economic value added, capital structure, weighted average cost of capital, single area payment scheme, capital, conventional farming, organic farming.

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Gender Issues on Poverty Alleviation Programmes in Nigeria; the Case of the National Fadama 1 Development Project in Abia State, Nigeria

C.I. Ezeh C.O. Anyiro I.O. Ehiemere N.Q Obioma No 3/2012, September

ABSTRACT

This study determined the gender issues on poverty alleviation programmes; the case of the National Fadama 1 Development Programme in Abia State, Nigeria. Multi-stage random sampling technique was used in the selection of the local government areas, communities and sample size of 150 respondents (75 men and 75 females). The instrument for data collection was via well structured and protested questionnaires. The result of the poverty profiles indicated that the poverty incidence of the male and female fadama1 farmers was 0.67 and 0.56 respectively. The result on the poverty gap (measures income shortfall) showed that the men required 46.0 percent and the women 48.0 percent of the poverty line to get out of poverty. The result also posted the Gini-coefficient (measures the extent of inequalities in income distribution) of the male and female fadama farmers to be 0.233 and 0.347 respectively. The result of the paired t-test revealed that the farm size and annual fadama farm income were statistically significant at 99.0% and 95.0%. Confidence level respectively. Policy aimed at annulling the land tenure system and replacing it with a gender sensitive system that will redistributive the fadama land equitably. The land tenure system which causes fragmentation of land should be abolished and a policy aimed at redistributing fadama land equitably put in place.

KEYWORDS

Gender, poverty alleviation, poverty incidence, National Fadama.

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Evaluation of the No-Till Demonstration Studies in South East Anatolia Region of Turkey

S. Gürsoy No 3/2012, September

ABSTRACT

The practice of no-till in crop production has gained popularity in recent years because it is a superior soil conservation practice and offers reduction in fuel and labor requirements. But, its adaption is very slow in many countries because of lack of knowledge, experience and machines. A series of demonstration studies was conducted to observe the performance of the no-till systems in farmers’ conditions in South East Anatolia region of Turkey. Four demonstration sites were established, each of which was also planted with farmers’ application for wheat (Triticum Aestivum L.) after wheat, wheat after lentil (Lens Culinaris, L), wheat after cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) and lentil after wheat in 2009-2010 growing season. Yield was higher under no-till planting (1.50 t ha-1) than farmers’ application (1.10 t ha-1) for lentil production after wheat. The no- till planting had similar yield to farmers’ application for wheat production after wheat and lentil. The yield performance of wheat following cotton for no-till ridge planting and farmers’ application was not consistent at three demonstration sites. In conclusion, the studies of the demonstration showed that no-till planting may be used in lentil and wheat production following wheat and lentil under these weather and soil conditions in South East Anatolia Region of Turkey.

KEYWORDS

No-till, traditional tillage, wheat, lentil, yield.

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Possibilities of Using the Four-factorial Inventory of the Climate of Innovation in the Czech Agricultural Sector

J. Hron L. Pilař J. Pokorná M. Štádlerova No 3/2012, September

ABSTRACT

To increase the competitiveness of the European model of agriculture, an environment of innovation must be created in the field of primary agricultural production and in the subsequent processing industries. The level of innovation in the processing industry greatly influences the competitiveness of businesses on the market. The team climate inventory (TCI-38) is a specific tool for measuring the important aspects of an innovation- focused team work environment. The aim of the article is to verify the possibilities of use of the TCI-38 tool in the Czech Republic. The TCI-38 factor structure in the Czech Republic is described in the article on the basis of exploratory and confirming factor analysis. Through exploratory factor analysis, the input variables were reduced to 5 factors: (1) Team vision, (2) Support for Innovations, (3) Participation Safety, (4) Task Orientation, (5) Communication, which accounted for 79.46 % of the total variance. The results Rotation Sums of Squared Loading and reliability coefficients of extracted factors show that TCI-38 is a stable tool for measuring the climate for innovation in the team work environment in the Czech Republic.The article originated as a part of the Internal Grant Agency (IGA) of the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, Registration Number 201111140064.

KEYWORDS

Agricultural Sector, Innovation, Team Vision, Support for Innovations, Participation Safety, Task Orientation, Communication.

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Cloven-hoofed animals spatial activity evaluation methods in Doupov Mountains in the Czech Republic

J. Jarolímek J. Masner M. Ulman S. Dvořák No 3/2012, September

ABSTRACT

The focus of the project „Collection and interpretation of positional data“ is placed on the use of positional data (or the information about a moving object) in the scientific research and educational activities in various fields such as environmental science, logistics, spatial data infrastructure, information management, and others. The objective of this effort is to create an universal model for collection and presentation of moving objects data retrieved through GPS (Global Positioning System), and to verify the model in practice.Several different approaches to process and visualize data about sika deer (Cervus nippon) spatial movements in Doupov Mountains are described in the paper. The data base is represented with large data files created through the cooperation of the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague and the Military Forests and Estates of the Czech Republic, a state-owned enterprise.Pieces of knowledge introduced in this paper resulted from solution of an institutional research intention. Internal grant agency of the Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, grant no. 20121043, „Sběr a interpretace pozičních dat“.The results of the cloven-hoofed animals spatial activity evaluation methods will be available for Research Program titled “Economy of the Czech Agriculture Resources and Their Efficient Use within the Framework of the Multifunctional Agri-food Systems” of the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports number VZ MSM 6046070906.

KEYWORDS

Telemetric observation, GPS, GSM, sika deer (Cervus nippon), polygon, quickhull, heat map.

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Precise Irrigation Process Support by Using a Computer Based Algorithm of Heuristics

Z. Palková T. Rodný I. Okenka No 3/2012, September

ABSTRACT

Optimization of production processes are required to provide companies with a competitive advantage. In the production industry this optimization is already under control and optimization of complex end-optimal models has been proposed. Using these model processes in agricultural production is inappropriate because they calculate exactly a process without the influence of random variables and factors. At the present time is usual to develop specific processes operating under ideal conditions. Their disadvantage is that real data from them vary considerably. Therefore, there is a need to develop simple methods and tools which can optimize these processes.

KEYWORDS

Irrigation system, queuing theory, precise irrigation, heuristic algorithms.

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Development of Agricultural Trade of Visegrad Group Countries in Relation to EU and Third Countries

M. Svatoš L. Smutka No 3/2012, September

ABSTRACT

Despite the continually growing value of agricultural trade of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland, agricultural trade in the case of all of the countries of the Visegrad group represents only a marginal part of the total merchandise trade. The agricultural trade of the individual analyzed countries is, both in terms of the commodity structure as well as the territorial structure, very distinctly concentrated. The overwhelming majority of agricultural trade – export as well as import – je conducted in relation to EU countries. These countries participate in agricultural trade of individual countries of the V4 group with a share of over 80%. If we focus on the actual objective of the article, which was to identify the comparative advantages of agricultural trade of the V4 countries in the area of commodity structure and territorial structure, both in relation to the global market, as well as in relation to EU27, the following may be stated. The agricultural trade of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary as a whole does not have comparative advantages either on the global market or on the internal market of the EU countries. However, Poland as the only representative of the V4 countries has comparative advantages in the field of agricultural trade, in relation to both the internal market of the EU countries, as well as in relation to the global market (to the market of third countries). If we focus on the territory of the EU27 countries, which represents the main trading partner of all of the analyzed countries, both in terms of exports as well as in terms of imports, it may be stated that despite the fact that the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary do not have comparative advantages in the area of agricultural trade in regard to the EU as a whole, they are able to achieve comparative advantages at the level of bilateral relationships with individual member countries of the EU.This paper is part of a research project carried out within the framework of the grant no. 6046070906, funded by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic.

KEYWORDS

Agricultural trade, total trade, share, Visegrad group, export, import, market, world, European Union, competitiveness, position, structure, commodities, territories, trend, development.

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Information Support of Regions and Possibilities of Its Further Development

J. Vaněk M. Stočes P. Šimek I. Hrbek No 3/2012, September

ABSTRACT

The paper presents the results of information and communication technologies (ICT) research support in the Czech Republic regions, focused mainly on the problems of mapping cultural heritage together with activities in the area of tourism and business activities connected with it (accommodation, food etc). One possible approach is demonstrated on the example of web portal “Get to know Posumavi – a tourist guide to Posumavi”. This approach integrates the advantages of standard information sources with the Internet application. Moreover, this application provides a clear topographical output. The project is being prepared in co-operation with a chosen local partner, in our case the Posumavi local action group. The under-mentioned solution can be further extended if need be, but we can also understand it as a general-purpose solution which means it can be widely used in other areas of the information support of regions.The knowledge and data presented in the paper were obtained as a result of the Research Program titled “Economy of the Czech Agriculture Resources and Their Efficient Use within the Framework of the Multifunctional Agri-food Systems” of the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports number VZ MSM 6046070906.

KEYWORDS

ICT adoption, broadband, tourism, regional development, web portal.

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Wage Disparity and Inter-Occupation Specifics in Managing Czech Households’ Portfolios: What is the position of agricultural workers?

L. Vavroušková L. Čechura No 3/2012, September

ABSTRACT

Wage disparity that exists between genders, sectors, and geographical regions, can influence household portfolio management. This study examines the impact of wage disparity and inter-occupation differences on Czech household portfolios. The model of portfolio choice was estimated using the Heckman selection model complemented by wage disparity analysis. Results show no significant differences in financial portfolios between blue-collar workers, including farm households and employees in agricultural sector, and white- collar workers. There was high heterogeneity within the group of blue-collar workers, and wage disparity among employment sectors. Employees in the agricultural sector were categorised as having a below average salary and characterised by a lower probability of utilising long-term saving products, loans and making a smaller contribution to short term saving products. Agricultural workers and farm household were a highly heterogeneous group. Finally a significant regional wage disparity in the Czech agriculture sector was observed.The research was supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (Grant No. MSM 6046070906).

KEYWORDS

Wage disparity, Occupation specifics, Portfolio choice, Heckman selection model.

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