A. A. Obisesan
No 3/2015, September
pp. 3 - 11
ABSTRACT
This study examined off-farm activity participation, technology adoption and impact on food security status of Nigerian farming households. Data were collected using structured questionnaire through a multistage sampling technique. Propensity Score Matching, descriptive statistics and Foster-Greer-Thorbecke weighted index were employed in analysis. Participation in off-farm activity has a positive and significant (p<0.05) influence on level of adoption. The mean per capita household food expenditure (MPCHFE) was ₦30198.34 while the food insecurity line was ₦20132.22 per annum. The impact of improved technology adoption on food insecurity incidence of adopters with off-farm activity was higher than their counterparts without participation. This suggests that participation in off-farm activity and technology adoption have the potential to improve food security. Hence, there should be further sensitization on this technology to improve food security and policy measures should also be oriented towards the support and improvement of rural off-farm income opportunities.
KEYWORDS
Off-farm work, adoption, food security, rural Nigeria.
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P. ProcházkaH. ŘezbováL. Smutka
No 3/2015, September
pp. 13 - 23
ABSTRACT
Prince Edward Island (PEI) is well known around the world for its potato industry. While economically beneficial for PEI, potato production contributes to its environmental deterioration. This can be attributed to the high use of chemicals and fertilizers in the production, which leads to the pollution of PEI’s watercourses. In response to the environmental crisis, the PEI provincial government proposed several land use policies to mitigate the negative influence of potato production on water quality. One of the policies that is analyzed in this paper is a mandated crop rotation. The analysis of the mandatory crop rotation policy is achieved through the application of optimal control theory and dynamic programming. Findings from the co-integration model show that agriculture is most likely responsible for watercourse pollution in PEI. This provides statistical evidence that a policy aimed at water protection, specifically targeting potato land use is necessary. However the application of environmentally friendly approach (mandatory crops rotation) is positive, its negative impact on individual farms economy is evident.
KEYWORDS
Optimal control theory, mandatory crop rotation, environmental policy, agriculture, potato producers, economy impact.
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A. F. ShaibuR. M. Al-Hassan
No 3/2015, September
pp. 25 - 36
ABSTRACT
The Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) is the Ghanaian version of a Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSP) that has a mandate to give one hot meal a day to school children in public schools from kindergarten through to primary six. The programme was launched in 2005 with the goal of contributing to poverty reduction and increased food security in Ghana. One of the key objectives of the programme is to boost domestic food production by sourcing GSFP raw materials locally, and providing a sustainable market for local food producers in the community. To analyse accessibility of rice farmers to the Ghana School Feeding Programme and its effect on production in three districts of the Northern Region of Ghana, a formal cross section survey of 100 small holder rice farmers was conducted. The transcendental logarithmic production function was applied to analyse the programme’s effect on rice output in the three districts using access to the GSFP and other input variables. Our results show that farm labour, farm size, and fertilizer application were significant in increasing farmers’ output while access to the GSFP market was not. Again there is no significant difference between the output of those who had access to the school feeding programme and those who do not.
KEYWORDS
Accessibility, effect, production, Ghana School Feeding Programme and rice farmers.
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J. StekláM. GryčováJ. Homolka
No 3/2015, September
pp. 37 - 48
ABSTRACT
One of the major factors, which affect the economic effectiveness, is suitable capital facilities of enterprises. In case of correct adjustment of capital structure, more precisely the ratio of equity capital and foreign capital, it is necessary take into account a number of factors which operate on the structure of capital, for example a variety of funding sources. The main aim of this paper is to analyze the development of the capital structure and capital disparity across the farmers' cooperatives from fourteen regions of the Czech Republic for time series 2009 – 2013. For this analysis is used the debt leverage indicators and method of comparative statics. Data are obtained and processed from the database of enterprises of Albertina. The financial and economic crisis lowered the debt to equity ratio and debt to assets ratio and the profitability ratios as well and the indicators reports V-shaped trend. The disparity of the ratio values among regions at the end of the monitored period seems not to be changed. Usually Prague as the region with the highest GDP per capita during the monitored period reports usually the extreme values in most ratios and higher deviations in debt ratios and lower deviations in profitability ratios. Also the impact of capital structure indicators on the profitability of cooperatives seems to be not significant during the monitored period.
KEYWORDS
Capital structure, disparity, farmers′ cooperatives, regions.
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P. ŠimekJ. VaněkJ. Pavlík
No 3/2015, September
pp. 49 - 56
ABSTRACT
The article deals with experimental verification of three distinct UX web application testing methods in areas of agriculture, food industry, forestry, water management and rural development. The verification was conducted using agrarian WWW portal AGRIS. The three analyzed methods were five-second test, thirty-second test and usability test with preset scenario. The usability test yielded best results. The results of thirty-second test were satisfactory while the five-second test proved to be unsuitable for the given area.
KEYWORDS
UX, agrarian portal, testing, WWW, user, information source.
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O. ŠimpachM. Pechrová
No 3/2015, September
pp. 57 - 69
ABSTRACT
Only knowing the future development of the farmers’ age structure, it is possible to formulate the steps for its improvement and to plan young farmers’ support. The aim of the paper is (with regard to the European Union’s programme periods) to project the age-and-sex structure of agricultural workers until 2041 and to model the scenarios of subsidies supports. Cohort-component method and data from Census 2011 are used for projection of two variants of population development.The number of old agricultural workers will exceed the number of young in 2026. It will start to grow after as the second generation of children born during the 70s of the last century (under the strong pro-population policy of the communist regime and the government of President Gustav Husák) will enter the reproduction period. As an implication it will be possible (and necessary) to support more applicants. While in 2011 it there were 12.1% of young farmers (potential applicants for subsidies) supported by EUR 205.7 bil., this amount will be able to cover 18.6% in 2041.
KEYWORDS
Age-and-sex structure, population projection, subsidies’ policy, young farmer.
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J. TyrychtrA. Vasilenko
No 3/2015, September
pp. 71 - 77
ABSTRACT
Econometric model application in farms is a very complex process requiring knowledge not only the economy but also statistical and mathematical methods in agriculture workers themselves. The solution may be an application of econometric problems in analytical decision support systems for farms managers. For such a solution is necessary to design a multidimensional database for support online analytical data processing (OLAP). This paper proposes a new method (called TEM-CM) for formal transformation of econometric model to the conceptual data model for creating multidimensional schemes. This new method allows to formalize the process of transferring production function in agriculture to multidimensional data model and thus contribute to a more efficient design of data warehouses and OLAP databases for decision support in the agricultural analytics systems.
KEYWORDS
Multidimensional database, OLAP, econometric model, production function, conceptual design, agriculture.
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H. UrbancováH. ČermákováM. Navrátilová
No 3/2015, September
pp. 79 - 87
ABSTRACT
The aim of this paper is to evaluate human resource Diversity Management in agricultural companies in the Czech Republic and to prepare a set of recommendations for the companies in this area. The primary data for the study was obtained by the use of questionnaires designed for quantitative analysis (n = 549, nagriculture = 108). The results indicate that the use of Diversity Management on Czech companies is relatively low (36.1%; na = 108). But in view of the employment situation in the agricultural sector, as well as the characteristics of the workforce engaged in agriculture, it would appear that Diversity Management will become an important feature of company management in the not so distant future.This contribution is a follow-up to the project of University – wide internal grant agency (CIGA), number 20141002 - Human resource branding using of the new strategic trends in organizations in the Czech Republic.
KEYWORDS
Human resources, Diversity Management, agriculture, the Czech Republic, labour fource, company.
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E. VlašicováZ. Náglová
No 3/2015, September
pp. 89 - 97
ABSTRACT
The number of organic farms in the Czech Republic is increasing as well as the number of organic winemaking enterprises. The article deals with an evaluation and comparison of the economic situation of organic and conventional winemaking enterprises in the Czech Republic. An economic analysis of the 75 enterprises accounting data from 2007 to 2011 has been done. The financial analysis indicators, bankruptcy models, efficiency indicator and performance indicators were calculated. In order to compare the values of the respective indicators the t-test was used. The performed analysis confirmed a better economic situation of organic winemaking enterprises. Winemaking businesses – whether organic or conventional – are capable of a good financial management and generate profit even without the aid of any subsidies.This article was created as a part of IGA 20141046 project.
KEYWORDS
Wineries, economic analysis, t-test, subsidies.
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A. ZainuriA. WardhonoSutomoJ. A. Ridjal
No 3/2015, September
pp. 99 - 106
ABSTRACT
The increase in soybean prices is caused by an imbalance between the ability to produce soybeans in the country and the increase in demand, so that scarcity of soybean is an issue in an agricultural country like Indonesia. The purpose of this study was to determine the mapping and competitiveness of soybean in East Java, as well as to find out alternative government policies to increase the fair competitiveness of soybean in East Java. Based on the results of the analysis, the recommendation on the most effective policy is the development of competitiveness of local soybean and maintaining the performance of the existing farmer groups, as well as the stabilization of local soybean prices.JEL Code: Q02, Q11, Q18
KEYWORDS
Competitiveness, food security, government policy, soybeans.
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