Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Kristína KOČIŠOVÁ Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Banking and Investment, Faculty of Economics, Technical University of Košice, Košice, Slovak Republic Title: Application of the DEA on the measurement of efficiency in the EU countries Abstract: The purpose of the paper is to investigate the relative technical efficiency of the agricultural sector in the European Union (EU) using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) during the period 2007-2011. The authors investigated efficiency using both the input and output-oriented models with the assumption of a variable return to scale. They looked for causes of inefficiency and made recommendations for inefficient agricultural sectors. The results show that, in average, the EU agricultural sectors performed efficiently, as evidenced by the relatively high value of the average input and output efficiency. The efficiency of the EU agricultural sectors had changed over the past few years, and in both models the efficiency has generally decreased over time. As the main source of inefficiency was labelled the input "total utilised agricultural area" and as the strength with a positive impact on efficiency, there was labelled the "crop output." By calculating the optimal values for the input and output variables for inefficient agricultural sectors, it has been found that for the efficient production of a given quantity of outputs, it was necessary to reduce the value of the input "total labour" in average by 6.18%, the "total utilised agricultural area" in average by 14.45% and the "total assets" in average by 5.93%. In case of the output-oriented model for efficient use of a given quantity of inputs, the agricultural sectors should produce up to 111.85% of their crop output and 113.41% of their animal output. Keywords: agricultural sectors in the European Union, agriculture, Data Envelopment Analysis, technical efficiency DEA, technical efficiency Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 51-62 Volume: 61 Issue: 2 Year: 2015 DOI: 10.17221/107/2014-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/107/2014-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201502-0001.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:61:y:2015:i:2:id:107-2014-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Jan TYRYCHTR Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Information Technology, Faculty of Economic and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Miloš ULMAN Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Information Technology, Faculty of Economic and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Václav VOSTROVSKÝ Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Software Engineering, Faculty of Economic and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Title: Evaluation of the state of the Business Intelligence among small Czech farms Abstract: Business Intelligence (BI) can assist in agricultural enterprises to strengthen their production potential and technical efficiency due to its effective support to the managerial, analytical, planning, and decision-making activities of managers and specialists. However, the state of the BI in the Czech Republic is not still completely understood. In this context, this paper aims at the evaluation of the current state of the art of the BI among small Czech farms. The focus of the research was put on the evaluation of both the state of the BI, and the relevant business information systems and software for agriculture. There was a survey among 135 agricultural entrepreneurs from various regions in the Czech Republic. The survey results are presented by the descriptive statistics and frequency tables. There is an examination of the relationship between the agricultural enterprise structure and the use of the BI. Dependencies among the examined characteristics were sought by the means of the analysis of qualitative variables. With 95% probability, it could be claimed that the type of production, the size of farmed land, the number of employees and the level of financial subsidies have no significant impact on using the BI, the expert and analytical systems in agricultural enterprises. . Keywords: agriculture, information systems, multidimensional database, OLAP, precision agriculture Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 63-71 Volume: 61 Issue: 2 Year: 2015 DOI: 10.17221/108/2014-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/108/2014-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201502-0002.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:61:y:2015:i:2:id:108-2014-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Daniel BADULESCU Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Oradea, Oradea, Romania Author-Name: Adriana GIURGIU Author-Workplace-Name: Department of International Business, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Oradea, Oradea, Romania Author-Name: Nicolae ISTUDOR Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Agrifood and Environment Economics, Faculty of Agrifood and Environment Economics, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania Author-Name: Alina BADULESCU Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Oradea, Oradea, Romania Title: Rural tourism development and financing in Romania: A supply-side analysis Abstract: For more than a century, and almost everywhere in the world, rural areas suffered a steady decline, due to the decrease of the real income from the agricultural activities, the lack of serious economic alternatives, and demographic issues. Rural tourism could contribute to the rural sustainable development through small local businesses valorising the natural, cultural and ethnographic resources. However, most of them need the financial support from private creditors (banks). The survey-based research conducted among banks' representatives has identified several strengths of small rural ventures, such as the small scale and the associated risks, the endurance to external shocks, the openness to market opportunities, as well as some of their weaknesses: e.g. a poor management experience, seasonality etc. We have also identified the actions necessary to be performed by these firms to attract financial resources from the banks' side, i.e. the diversification of income sources, the association and the adherence to recognized brands and maintaining a reasonable leverage ratio. It was found that the bank's size does not matter, but the nature of the bank's capital does: the private domestic banks are more willing to finance such businesses. The banks' involvement in co-financing the EU projects could be a way to foster and strengthen the rural businesses. Keywords: bank lending, financing constraints, rural development, rural tourism businesses Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 72-82 Volume: 61 Issue: 2 Year: 2015 DOI: 10.17221/94/2014-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/94/2014-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201502-0003.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:61:y:2015:i:2:id:94-2014-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Hyunsoo KANG Author-Workplace-Name: Division of International Trade, Wonkwang University, Jeonbuk, Korea Title: Agricultural exports and economic growth: Empirical evidence from the major rice exporting countries Abstract: This study investigates the evidence of the export-led growth in major rice exporting countries using the extended production model. In addition, a special attention is paid to sectoral exports, which are specified as non-agricultural, agricultural (excluding rice exports), and rice exports. The main finding of this study is that the rice exports are an important means of stimulating economic growth in major rice exporting countries. Keywords: export-led growth, rice exports, vector error correction model, Granger causality Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 81-87 Volume: 61 Issue: 2 Year: 2015 DOI: 10.17221/99/2014-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/99/2014-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201502-0004.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:61:y:2015:i:2:id:99-2014-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Mugurel Ionel JITEA Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economic Sciences, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca, Romania Author-Name: Diana Elena DUMITRAȘ Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economic Sciences, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca, Romania Author-Name: Vasile Alexandru SIMU Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economic Sciences, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca, Romania Title: An ex-ante impact assessment of the Common Agricultural Policy reform in the North-Western Romania Abstract: The paper aims to assess the impact of the Common Agricultural Policy reform (post 2014) in the environmental vulnerable areas from Romania. It proposes a bio-economic dynamic farm model calibrated with the positive mathematical programming (PMP). The standard PMP approach was extended to simulate the mixed farming systems through the introduction of a livestock production activity in the first calibration step. It allows incorporating activities not available in the base year, but that can be performed by the farmers after the future policy reforms. The model provides supply-responses for both the crop and livestock farms according to the agricultural and financial policy shifts. It maximizes the farm net financial flows subject to the resource, livestock, financial and agricultural policy constraints. The initialisation data were obtained from a face-to-face stratified survey applied on the mixed-sheep farms that have used grassland areas under the Agri-Environment Schemes (AES) in the North-Western Romania (Transylvania). The results show that the most vulnerable group to the policy changes is represented by the small-size farms, to which the AES are very important economic drivers. Thus, the diversification and the off-farm employments possibilities should be integrated into the future rural development plans as a premise for their survival. Keywords: Agri-Environment Schemes (AES), bio-economic model, land abandonment, positive mathematical programming (PMP) Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 88-103 Volume: 61 Issue: 2 Year: 2015 DOI: 10.17221/116/2014-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/116/2014-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201502-0005.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:61:y:2015:i:2:id:116-2014-AGRICECON