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CAP 2013 reform: consistency between agricultural challenges and measures
47-55Views:159The latest reform of the Common Agricultural Policy has just been accepted, identifying important challenges for EU agriculture but proposing only limited changes to the previous CAP. Now it is time for the implementation of the new measures. However, from a theoretical point of view, it seems that the CAP can hardly meet the challenges it faces due to the inconsistencies between the predefined challenges and the measures proposed to meet them. The aim of the paper is to analyse the consistency between the challenges of European agriculture and the policy measures aimed at meeting them. It seems that not all measures are consistent with the challenges.
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The role of mental budgeting in healthy financial behavior: a survey among self-employed entrepreneurs
15-25Views:237Self-employed entrepreneurs (without personnel) manage their business and household finances at the same time. Both domains tend to interact with each other. In this study, it is studied whether and how self-employed entrepreneurs manage their finances. More specifically, the role of mental budgeting and time orientation in healthy financial behavior is studied. Mental budgeting is a way to manage expenses. It entails setting budgets, making reservations on budgets, compensating after too much spending on a budget, and non-fungibility (treating money as earmarked and categorized). It can be expected that self-employed entrepreneurs using mental budgeting strategies behave in a more healthy financial manner. Survey data were collected among self-employed people without personnel in The Netherlands. The survey contained, among others, questions about the company, time orientation, financial management, tax attitude, reported tax compliance, and concern or worry about the future. Questions were factor analyzed using principal component analyses. The resulting scales were used for further analyses. Regression analyses were performed to predict concern or worry about finances, financially restricting to and exceeding budgets, and reporting tax compliance. In this paper, two components of time orientation are distinguished: awareness of consequences and carelessness about the future. From these components, four orientation types of self-employed people were obtained. The orientation type focusing on long-term consequences shows more healthy financial behavior, whereas the orientation type focusing on the present and less on consequences shows less healthy financial behavior. Responsible and healthy financial behavior of self-employed entrepreneurs is related to focusing on long-term consequences, using mental budgeting, and keeping one’s budgets. Aspects of mental budgeting are predicting worry about business finances. Differential effects of mental budgeting were found on restricting one’s budgets, and exceeding budgets, respectively. Of two measures of future circumstances (work disability, pension), only pension measures were predicting worrying about finances. Mental budgeting was not related to tax compliance, except for fungibility. Past tax behavior is predictive of other (past) tax behaviors. Fiscal history measures prove to be correlated with present measures.
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The political economy of agri-environmental measures: An empirical assessment at the eu regional level
71-82Views:157The paper deals with the political and economic determinants of EU agri-environmental measures (AEMs) applied by 59 regional/country units, during the 2001-2004 period. Five different groups of determinants, spanning from positive and negative externalities, to political institutions, are highlighted and tested using an econometric model. Main results show that AEMs implementation is mostly affected by the strength of the farm lobby, and the demand for positive externalities. At the same time it emerges a prominent role played by political institutions. On the contrary, AEMs do not seem implemented by the willingness to address negative externalities.
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Effect of uncertainty on farmers decision making: Case of animal manure use
7-13Views:151Due to the high levels of manure application and the poor use efficiency of manure, the European agriculture is held responsible for a considerable negative impact on surface water quality (Langeveld et al., 2007). This problem has emerged particularly in Western-European countries such as the UK, Belgium, The Netherlands and Denmark, facing a large expansion and intensification process in the livestock production since the 1960s (Van der Straeten et al., 2008). Policy measures related to the application of manure on the land encompass two major measures: emission rights, understood as the amount of nutrients which can be applied on the land, differentiated by crop and the N spreading calendars, whereby the manure can only be applied when the crop needs nutrients. The fundamental aim of this pillar is to maximising application rate while avoiding overfertilisation. Maximizing the application rate is related to the economic sustainability of the agricultural sector, by altering the manure surplus, while avoiding overfertilisation is imperative in enhancing ecological sustainability, by preventing nitrate leaching to surface and soil waters. For nitrate policy to meet its target, the farmers should not exceed their emission rights, however make optimal use of their emission right for manure. Consequently, the successful implementation of sink-related measures will strongly depend of the absorptive capacity of farmers towards new ways of nutrient management in general and of animal manures in particular.
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New sources of employment to promote the wealth-generating capacity of rural communities
15-21Views:144New Sources of Employment to Promote the Wealth-Generating Capacity of Rural Communities (acronym: RuralJobs) is a collaborative research project partly funded under the European Commission Research and Development 7th Framework Program. The Rural Jobs consortium consists of partners drawn from eight European Union (EU) countries (Bulgaria, France, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Romania, Spain and UK). The project began on February 2008 and finished in October 2010. RuralJobs quantified labour market, demographic and economic trends, and the impact of employment creation measures and policies in seven, representative “reference areas” across the EU, and used the information to demonstrate how rural development measures can be better targeted and how rural development policies should evolve.We identified labour market, demographic and economic trends in rural areas across EU-27 and the potential for new sources of employment outside traditional primary and secondary sector activities, and examined the interaction between different types of rural area (peri-urban, remote, high environmental/amenity value etc.). We identified employment growth areas where rural development programmes can be targeted to increase their contribution to employment creation. Our strategic objectives were the following: review of employment policies and programmes, scenarios for new sources of employment according to rural typologies, recommendations for better targeting of strategies, dissemination and mainstreaming. The main outcome expected is that the results will allow a better targeting of rural development measures and future evolution of rural development policies in line with the Lisbon Strategy.
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Farmers’ knowledge on fall armyworm (spodoptera frugiperda) pesticide application and its relationship with quantity of maize that is lost to fall armyworm
Views:127Fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) has spread rapidly and posed numerous threats to the food security and livelihood of millions of smallholder farmers in Ghana. This study quantifies the damages of fall armyworm infestation in maize production and identifies the various methods used in controlling fall armyworm infestation. Almost all farmers 94% experienced fall armyworm infestation on their farms. They cited key common visual damages as yellowish leaves, stunted growth, poor yield quality, holes in leaves, and egg masses on leaves. Farmer’s loss an average of GH¢2616.07 to fall armyworm infestation. Pesticide application is the frequent control measure mostly used by farmers. Farmers do not mostly use biological methods for the control of the fall armyworm. The use of pesticide as a control method is however not effective as about GH¢ 3 000 per 1 acre is lost with the use of insecticides. It is recommended that the use of other control measures like the contemporary measures involving the use of birds and chickens as predators of eggs and worms of fall armyworm should be encouraged.
JEL code: Q16
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Small and medium enterprises as development factor of agribusiness in Republic of Serbia
45-49Views:154Development of strong and competitive sector of small and medium enterprises has very important role in process of total transition in Republic of Serbia. This sector should be one of the guidelines of economical development and future, like in developed countries. Within the Strategy of development of SME and entrepreneurship in Republic of Serbia from 2003 to 2008 government of the Republic of Serbia, not accidentally, placed among many sectors which are expected to contribute and boost economical development, increase the employment rate, and realize increased influx of means deriving from export, the priority is on sector of processing of agricultural products. It can be concluded that significant contribution from agriculture to improvement of total economical situation is expected. Accession to EU should be considered primarily not only as the opportunity but serious task in regard to restructuring of the agriculture. However, impeding circumstance,in regard to export ofagricultural-foodproducts,first ofallto EU countries, isthefact that thismarket is under strict protective measures within the policy of agriculture and measures of agrarian protectionism. In such conditions it is very difficult for producers and processors of food to enter such closed markets. Small and medium enterprises are facing the choice of the business strategy:
– to place the existing product on current market;
– to place the existing product on new markets, including export;
– to sell the new product on existing market;
– to place the new product on new markets, including export.
Therefore, based on analysis of domestic market, volume and structure of import and export of agricultural and food products, as well as analysis of food industry and agricultural production in Serbia, it is necessary to define potential programs for small and medium enterprises with production which could be economically efficient and profitable from the aspect of investment.
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Croatian wine market, support policy and specific obstacles to wine exports
19-22Views:157In this paper, analysis of Croatian wine sector in period 2006-2013 is conducted through the record of wine production, exports and imports together with Government support measures. In the light of Croatian EU membership together with opening of EU wine market and global wine market, recommendations for further discussion of support measures for small and medium winemakers are given.
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Determinants of dividend payout policy: An empirical study of banking sector of Pakistan
101-106Views:435One good way to communicate financial performance of a bank to its shareholders is the payment of dividend. The present study is attempted to explore the influence of financial efficiency, safety, risk and profitability on dividend policy using panel data of 10 commercial banks listed at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) for a period of 9 years between 2006 to 2014. The panel regression technique is used to analyze the data. The analysis shows a positive relationship of dividend payout ratio with safety and profitability in banking sector of Pakistan. The study identifies a negative association of dividend payout measure with financial efficiency and risk. The results show the statistically significant association of safety, risk and profitability with dividend payout ratio. Based on these findings it is concluded that safety, risk and profitability measures are relatively strong measures for defining dividend policy. The results are strongly indicating that safer the banks, the greater payout ratio the bank has. Moreover; banks with higher profitability and lower non-performing loans (NPLs) are believed to pay more dividends.
JEL code: G21, G23, G35
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Renewable energy resources in Hungary – solid biomass utilization in terms of necessity and opportunity
75-78Views:144In the 21st century a country’s success significantly depends on how it can solve the problems (supply safety, growing prices, climate change, etc.) induced by the application structure of the fossil energy sources with the means of energy saving, energy efficiency and the utilization of renewable energy resources. The utilization of renewable energy sources has positive effects on five key areas: environment protection, energy policies, fulfilment of EU expectations, agriculture and rural development and on the whole of the national economy. The bioenergy – beside fulfilling the national economic aims – it is putting up the value of the role of agriculture and rural development. The role of agriculture is multi-functional in the process. The agricultural sector has an important task in the area of bioenergy to ensure the proper quality and quantity of raw materials for the increase of bioenergy utilization. This also means new sales perspectives and opportunities for the producers. Above all this, the agricultural policy aims for the agriculture and the rural development segment to be the unambiguous winner of the new bioenergy sector and for most of the available profit to stay with the agricultural sector, with the rural players. For this reason encouraging the raw material production it wishes to encourage the producer their primary process and their local utilization. One of the fundamental objectives of the measures is that agriculture should go beyond the raw material production and take steps towards processing and utilization. The multifunctional role in the product chain might mean extra income and more added value for the producers and the active players in the process. The other objective is to promote the local utilization, the scatter of the environmentally friendly energy sources in rural areas, to change the energy is “lying on the ground unutilized” principle while local processing and promoting the utilization, to achieve a lower energy dependency and to optimize and disseminate cost efficient solutions. To realize all this means a great task and a huge challenge for the agricultural government as well as the rural societies and micro regions but might lead to a successful rural development. The range of the tools and measures to fulfil the aims might be very broad, from the regulating instruments to the various subsidies, coordination and dissemination tools. Part of the subsidy schemes are direct production-type of subsidies (the so called direct payments, for example the area based subsidies) and the other main forms are the investment-type subsidies which are for technology development, promotion of competitive production and local processing and for establishing a green energy industry. In the period of 2007-2013 the key elements of the development schemes were drafted in the frame of the New Hungary Rural Development Programme (ÚMVP) and the Environmental Energy Operational Program (KEOP). The available raw materials and the conditions are taken into consideration while designing the development schemes because a successful realization of a product chain means the assurance of the inputs and outputs. The starting point of determining the development direction is the principle of an operation which is sustainable and economical on the long run. In addition such developments are considered reasonable which are viable on medium and long term and bring numerous rural development, environmental and societal returns.
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Using sustainable development tools for solving property rights in Montenegro
127-131Views:112In recent months Montenegro has been faced with serious budget problems , one proposed solution of which has been to reduce the number of employees in state administration. Additionally, the costs of living are above the disposable budget of most households, in particular the high cost of electricity. While the government warns about a lack of electricity, the citizens are hardly in the position to cover these costs. Montenegro is dealing with the double challenge of inefficient use of space (the country features over 100,000 illegal homes)(I don’t understand the link between inefficient use of space and illegal homes) and inefficient energy use (Montenegro needs an average of 8.5 times more energy per unit produced than an average EU country). How can these problems be solved in a way which pleases both sides? In this paper, an approach is presented which links the solving of the problem of illegal construction with increasing the level of energy efficiency in households, businesses and other facilities. There is a model developed by UNDP Montenegro – an integrated policy solution to the double challenge of providing energy efficiency measures to incentivise households to legalise their homes. The legalisation of illegal buildings by the introduction of mandatory energy efficiency measures in them may at the same time result in an increase of revenue to the central and local budgets, the reduction of negative impacts on the environment, an increase in employment, the engagement of the economy, a reduction of electricity consumption and thereby to reduce the need to import electricity, and ultimately the increased welfare of the population.
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Modeling multifunctionality of agriculture at a farm-level: The case of kerkini district, Northern Greece
59-64Views:126Multifuncionality has become a central concern at both conceptual and empirical levels. In this study, a comparative evaluation of the economic performance of conventional and multifunctional farms (mainly organic farms) was conducted for the Lake Kerkini region (North Greece) with the use of mixed integer non-linear programming method. The economic performance of farms was evaluated in terms of farm income, resource allocation, production level and production mix. The results indicate that multifunctional farms have overall better economic performance and young farm managers are keener to adopt multifunctional farming than the older ones. Differences between the model results and the observed facts are attributed to the structural characteristics of the farms, along with the CAP measures and the existence of multiple objectives, beyond maximization of net farm returns.
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Challenges to sustainable rural development in Russia: social issues and regional divergences
45-51Views:218Paper aims at investigation of contemporary approaches to sustainable rural development in Russia. It includes the overview of current experiences in rural development, analysis of major economic and social indicators of rural areas in comparison with urban ones. Analysis included the set of indicators such as number of rural people, number of rural settlements, rates of births and mortalities, natural and migration increases and declines of population, rates of employment and unemployment, average monthly nominal per capita wages, and level of the subsistence minimum. Indicators have been measured separately for rural and urban areas; regions have been grouped in relation to the particular indicator. The research is concluded by discovery of growth points for rural development and a set of recommendations on perspective measures of state and local policies in rural areas, directed on increase of living standards of rural population and retention of labour resources in their traditional rural areas of inhabitation.
JEL: Q18, P25
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Less favoured area measure in the Netherlands: a welcome or negligible addition?
23-28Views:171The Less Favoured Areas (LFAs) Directive (75/268) which was introduced in 1975, was the first common European instrument of regional agricultural structural policy. LFAs are areas where agriculture is hampered by permanent natural handicaps. The major objectives were to ensure the continuation of farming, thereby maintaining a minimum population level and preserving scenic landscapes and environmentally valuable habitats. In the Netherlands, the LFA measure is used as an additional payment, to compensate farmers for negative economic effects due to the conservation of these natural handicaps. It was not implemented as a stand alone policy, but is linked to measures aiming at active nature and landscape conservation management. In this paper, the effects will be examined of the regulations aiming at the conservation of natural handicaps on farm businesses within LFAs, when comparing them to farm businesses outside LFAs, where these regulations and handicaps do not exist. The main data source that was used is the Farm Accountancy Data Network. Reference groups of farms were compiled with the use of the simple and multiple imputation approach in Stars (Statistics for Regional Studies). Both analyses were tested with the use of a parametric and a nonparametric test. When comparing the results of both analyses, it can be concluded that there is no evidence that there is a statistical difference in family farm income corrected for and not corrected for LFA payment between the LFA farm businesses and the reference groups. Based on these findings it can be concluded that the size of the compensatory allowances is small and there is no evidence that it has a significant effect on the family farm income of LFA farm businesses. The main purpose of the Dutch LFA policy is to compensate farm businesses for negative economic effects due to the conservation of natural handicaps. Although this may be true for some individual farms, based on the methods used in this paper, it appears not to be the case for the collectivity of LFA premium beneficiaries as a whole.
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Growth and venture capital investment potential for university spin-offs in Hungary
31-38Views:160Venture backed spin-offs represent a low proportion of companies, even of innovative companies. The research question was, whether these companies have an important role in innovation and economic growth. I present the most important indicators of innovation in connection with entrepreneurship, the measures of start-ups, mainly the high-tech ones. I describe the position of venture capital industry nowadays, detailing the classical venture capital investments, targeting high-growth potential small firms, even university spin-offs. The study presents the results of a survey made as a counterpart of an academic research team, examining spin-offs, entrepreneurs and technology transfer in the most important Hungarian universities. I found that the most important obstacles of venture capital investments in high-tech spin-offs are the information gap between demand and supply side, the lack of entrepreneurs’ willingness to give up freedom in decision making, despite of low managerial skills. The low quality of financial environment is also an obstacle of the segment.
JEL Codes: G24, M13
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Establishment of the Customer Perspective of the Balanced Scorecard System at Sports Enterprises Through the Example of a Hungarian Football Club
5-16Views:746In our present world, more and more attention is being paid to the evaluation and monitoring of different sports organizations, which is because the support of spectator sports has become an important issue. Our fundamental assumption is that football clubs of our time should operate just like large companies in the business sectors. Obviously, it is an essential prerequisite that controlling, a controlling system or a performance measurement system be applied at the business entities operating the clubs. According to our experience, conscious financing of organizations is often neglected in the course of the management processes of sports companies. It is necessary to create the conditions at these organizations that enable managerial decision support and the establishment of a controlling system. It is essential to find controlling methods and tools that can be successfully applied in the life of a sports organization and that ensure the harmonization and coordination of different processes. Consequently, controlling provides a higher level of transparency and information supply for decision makers. The aim of present study is to introduce the Balanced Scorecard (The Balanced Scorecard is a balanced strategic system of indexes, which measures the performance of companies for the sake of implementing the strategy), one of the tools of strategic controlling and its application to sports companies through an example of a Hungarian football club.
JEL Classification: Z23
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Agrarian budget as an instrument of agrarian development policy of Serbia
Views:123Purpose of the research is to emphasize the role of agrarian budget in development of Serbian agrarian economy and to examine the problem of agricultural and rural development financingsupport.Furthermore, in this research initial reforms of economic measures have been analyzed concerning Serbian agrarian policy. The goal of this paper is to provide an insight into the role of agricultural budget in agrarian policy of Serbia.The first part of the study gives an overview of macroeconomic situation in Serbia and impact of the financial crisis on Serbia’s economy. Second part includes analysis of the topic item, i.e. agrarian budget role in Serbian agrarian sector. It includes review of relevant literature and researches already conducted on legislation and practice of Serbian agrarian policy as well as examination of statistical data regarding present agrarian budget for 2009.The research focuses at the Serbian agrarian budget for 2009 and agrarian policy of the present Serbian government administration.
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Technical efficiency analysis of maize production: evidence from Ghana
73-79Views:528The study applies the single-stage modelling stochastic frontier approach to investigate the performance of maize farmers in the Ejura-Sekyedumase District of Ghana. It estimates the level of technical efficiency and its determinants for 306 maize farmers. Findings indicated that land, labour and fertilizer influenced output positively whilst agrochemicals and seeds affected output negatively. A wide variation in output was also found among producers of maize. The study further revealed that age, sex and off-farm work activities were significant determinants of technical inefficiencies in production. Results from the maximum likelihood estimate of the frontier model showed that averagely, farmers were 67% technically efficient, implying that 33% of maize yield was not realized. The return to scale which measures the productivity level of farmers was 1.22, suggesting that the farmers are operating at an increasing returns to scale.
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Exploring livelihood strategies of herder households in Mongolia: income-based approach
Views:231The classification of livelihood strategies is important for identifying different lifestyles and developing poverty reduction measures. The research was aimed to identify Mongolian herder households’ livelihood strategies and assess capital factors that impact their choice and livelihood outcomes in connection with wealth and poverty. A total of 350 herder households were surveyed using the stratified sampling methods from four different economic regions. The Income-Based Approach was applied to identify herder households’ livelihood strategies based on their primary income sources and Pearson correlation was used for assessing the influencing input. The study hypothesizes that herder households earn the majority of income sources from animal husbandry and an essential factor in the choice of livelihood strategy is the number of animals. The study found that livelihood strategies of nomadic herder households clustered into four main types: а) livestock income sources, solely b) earn from kinship and assistant herder salary in addition to livestock income; с) social benefits and pension income in addition to livestock income and d) income sources dependent on natural resources in addition to livestock income. Location, financial capital, and physical capital were the main factors for choosing a specific livelihood strategy. There was an insignificant difference between poor and wealthy herder households in terms of physical assets ownership. To reduce rural poverty, we need tailored sustainable development policies based on different herder households’ livelihood strategies.
JEL code: Q01, Q12, I30, D19, D31
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Semi-subsistence farming situation and policy – the example of Hungary
143-148Views:101In Hungary small farms have played very important role since collectivization (1959-61). Up to radical changes small households have received strong support from coops in the field of providing inputs on one side and, marketing their products on the other. The latter was disrupted by radical reforms and small farms started struggling with survival under market conditions. Government took measures to provide a development path for those having a chance to become competitive after five years development. Three calls (2004, 205 and 2006) were released. In Hungary SSF from three regions were more interested in getting the grant as North Great Plain, South Transdanubia and South Great Plain. All three regions are agriculture dominated ones. The policy with the call has reached a very moderate number of SSFs and, on the other side small farms, either because not meeting the criteria of the call or not wanted to take the additional costs of being registered and monitored for such a small amount of support decided not to apply. The paper ends with policy lessons.
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The choice between conventional and organic farming. A Hungarian example
55-58Views:141The paper deals with organic produce in one of the largest and, concerning organic production one of the most diffused counties in Hungary, Pest County located in the north-central part of the country. Factors influencing farmers’decision on adopting or not e.g. farm size, farm type, location, structure, market for organic products, existence of organic AEM were analysed. Hypotheses based on previous empirical literature were tested by a model explicitly accounting for the effects of farm-specific variables like age, education, size of farms and share of rented land. Logit model was estimated on a cross-section data set of Hungarian farmers for the period 2007. It appears that education has a positive impact on the choice between conventional and organic farming, and, the size of the farm in hectares has a negative effect on this choice.Age and some general considerations on environmental friendly technologies do not have a significant effect on choice between conventional and organic farming.
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A comparative analysis of the profitability of pineapple-mango blend and pineapple fruit juice processing in Ghana
33-42Views:282This study analyzes the profitability of fruit juice processing using data from Kudors Fruit Juice Limited at Kasoa in Ghana. The cost involved in fruit juice processing (which includes the capital cost and the operating cost) was obtained from the Company. This study compares the profitability of blend (i.e. fruit juice made up of pineapple and mango blend) with that of pineapple juice alone. The viability of the project was determined using the discounted measures of project worth: Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR), Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR). The empirical results reveal that pineapple juice processing had a BCR of 1.03 which means that going into the pineapple juice processing is profitable. The value of the NPV (GHS11,728.00) and IRR (23%) further confirms that pineapple juice processing is profitable because the NPV is positive and the IRR is greater than the discounted factor (21%). The results also showed that it is more profitable to invest in the blend (pineapple and mango blend) than the pineapple juice alone as it yields a BCR of 1.36 which was greater than the BCR of 1.03 for the pineapple juice only. Furthermore, the value of the NPV (GHS176,831.00) which is greater than the pineapple juice only, suggests that the blend is more profitable even though the IRR for both are the same. Moreover, it is also more likely to recover capital investment earlier in the processing of the blend than when one goes into pineapple juice processing only, because the net cash flow in year 2 (GHS 58,146.00) for the blend is more than triple that of the pineapple juice only (GHS17,826.00).These results have policy implications for the development of Agribusinesses in Ghana.
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Development of the European Union’s environmental policy and its measures for climate protection – a review
Views:324The negative impacts of human activities on the environment and nature can be felt worldwide. Thus there is a growing focus on measurements that keep sustainability in mind. As one of the main pioneers of environmental protection and sustainability efforts, these aspects are more and more prevalent in the current environmental policy of the European Union (EU). In this review article, the development of the environmental policy of the EU is presented. After listing the main milestones, the role of the EU in the area of environmental protection, the frameworks built around the goals and the roles of the institutions are discussed. Then – with an international detour – the details of the Paris Agreement about climate change and the state of the 20/20/20 commitments are summarised. In the remaining parts of the article, the focus is on the climate protection goals of the EU for the next three decades, the expected future directions, and the agenda of the von der Leyen Commission concerning climate protection. An important step and tool for achieving the goals set until 2050 is to incorporate climate and environmental protection elements to the 2021-2027 budget of the EU. In order to achieve the expected effects, it is crucial to develop the right tools of the environmental policy, to form a widespread cooperation, to raise awareness, and incentivise and support the innovative solutions in the sustainability area.
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Impacts of the global financial and economic crisis on the agro-food industry and rural livelihoods in Serbia
113-118Views:129Sixty-five per cent of the Serbian land area is agricultural and 55% of the population is rural.Agriculture share of GDP is more than 10% and about 47% of the rural labour force deals with agriculture. The aim of this work is to analyse the impacts of the global financial and economic crisis on the Serbian agro-food sector and rural communities. Measures introduced, mainly by public institutions, for relieving the consequences of the crisis are presented and discussed. Easily accessible yet high quality data from the central Office of Statistics in Serbia and specialized literature have been used. Impacts have been assessed by analyzing and discussing the trends of many socio-economic indicators. The crisis has had general impacts on the Serbian economy (low GDP growth, unemployment increase, price volatility, purchasing power decrease, etc.). Due to the crisis growth in agricultural production has been very low (0.1% in 2009). Agro-food exports decreased dramatically in 2008. About 9000 agricultural jobs were lost in 2008 and 2009. Reduced exports and lower domestic demand impacted negatively on agricultural commodity prices and agricultural household incomes.Access to credit became more difficult especially for small producers. However, agriculture is still a very important safety net. Agricultural employment share has increased both for men and women. The importance of agriculture is even higher if we consider the “grey agricultural economy”. To mitigate the crisis effects, the Government provided subsidies to rural people and will adopt the National Strategic Plan and Programme for Rural Development. Nevertheless, public institutions - in partnership with private, civil society and international organisations - should improve rural producers’ access to market information and credits and foster investments in rural areas including non-agricultural ones and those aiming at improving physical capital.
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New rural economy: Challenges and diversity in Eastern Croatia
51-54Views:137Eastern part of Croatia is agricultural region according to natural resource (fertile soil, first of all), as well as human potential (long experience in traditional agriculture). Besides agriculture as traditional activity, a characteristic of rurality is also added to this region. Rural area is dominant in Eastern Croatia and it effects on relatively small urban areas. This paper represents new possibilities of rural economic activities on family farms in Eastern Croatia. Role and significant of rural economic activities is analyzed through indicators overview (land structure, GDP, population, population density, TEA index, unemployment ect.). Challenges through diversification of rural economic activities in this paper includes added economic activities realized on family farms through tourism, crafts, handy work, processing, renewable energyetc. Added economic activities on family farms in Eastern Croatia participate with only 3.9%. Suggestions and possibilities measures of rural economic activities diversification are reflected through two main streams. First stream is diversification of activities through added value of agricultural products as vertical connection (organic food, autochthony products, functional food, renewable energy sources etc.). Other one economic activity diversification indicates distribution function of final products through different services on the family farm (direct sale, specialized shops, rural tourism and many other services).
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