Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Ľuboslav SZABO Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Management, Faculty of Business Management, University of Economics in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovak Republic Author-Name: Miroslav GRZNÁR Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Management, Faculty of Business Management, University of Economics in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovak Republic Title: Agriculture in the EU and position of the Slovak Republic Abstract: The paper analyses disparity in the performance of farms in the EU countries and identifies their causes. The individual countries are ranked in the paper according to the long-term average of the amount of their agricultural produce per unit of area into seven segments, and the relation between the input of fixed assets, intermediate consumption, labour force, levels of animals, and other aspects are identified for the creation of agricultural production. In terms of its performance, the Slovak agriculture ranks in the last but one seventh segment and in comparison with the advanced countries, it shows a low input of fixed assets, intermediate product, livestock units, but also a lower volume of the provided subsidies than the advanced countries. The Slovak agriculture does not make use of its competitive advantages, which involve mainly the size of businesses, the economies of scale, and the productivity of labour. Keywords: disparity of production, fixed assets, intermediate consumption, labour input, segmenting farms in the EU, size of farms, subsidies Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 493-501 Volume: 61 Issue: 11 Year: 2015 DOI: 10.17221/70/2015-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/70/2015-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201511-0001.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:61:y:2015:i:11:id:70-2015-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Waldemar BOJAR Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Management, University of Science and Technology, Bydgoszcz, Poland Author-Name: Leszek KNOPIK Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Management, University of Science and Technology, Bydgoszcz, Poland Author-Name: Jacek ŻARSKI Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Agriculture and Biotechnology, University of Science and Technology, Bydgoszcz, Poland Author-Name: Renata KUŚMIEREK-TOMASZEWSKA Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Agriculture and Biotechnology, University of Science and Technology, Bydgoszcz, Poland Title: Integrated assessment of crop productivity based on the food supply forecasting Abstract: Climate change scenarios suggest that long periods without rainfall will occur in the future often causing instability of the agricultural products market. The aim of the research was to build a model describing the amount of precipitation and droughts for forecasting crop yields in the future. In this study, the authors analysed a non-standard mixture of gamma and one point distributions as the model of rainfall. On the basis of the rainfall data, one can estimate the parameters of the distribution. The parameter estimators were constructed using the method of the maximum likelihood. The obtained rainfall data allow confirming the hypothesis of the adequacy of the proposed rainfall models. Long series of droughts allow one to determine the probabilities of adverse phenomena in agriculture. Based on the model, the yields of barley in the years 2030 and 2050 were forecasted which can be used for the assessment of other crops productivity. The results obtained with this approach can be used to predict decreases in agricultural production caused by the prospective rainfall shortages. This will enable decision makers to shape effective agricultural policies in order to learn how to balance the food supplies and demands through an appropriate management of the stored raw food materials and the import/export policies. Keywords: climate changes, decision-making tools, estimation of parameters, forecasted outputs, gamma distribution, predicting yields Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 502-510 Volume: 61 Issue: 11 Year: 2015 DOI: 10.17221/159/2014-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/159/2014-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201511-0002.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:61:y:2015:i:11:id:159-2014-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Zoltán BAKUCS Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary Author-Workplace-Name: Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary Author-Name: Imre FERTŐ Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary Author-Workplace-Name: Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary Author-Workplace-Name: University of Kaposvár, Kaposvár, Hungary Title: Empirical tests of sale theories: Hungarian milk prices Abstract: The paper tests various predictions of the sale theory literature, using the retailer specific price data in Hungary. Besides being set in a New Member State, characterised by rather different history of retailing than the established market economies, one of the main innovations of this paper is the comparative assessment of price promotions of two homogenous, every-day products different only with respect to their perishability: one litre boxed and one litre durable fluid milk. Using a battery of empirical techniques from the simple summary statistics, the distribution analysis to the discrete choice models and the co-integration, there is concluded that competing theory predictions on price distributions are not accepted. Also the Hypothesis that manufacturers determine timing of sales is rejected. The results do not confirm that durable goods should have a qualitatively different pricing pattern than perishable products. When the temporal order of sales is considered, the estimations support the Hypothesis of alternate sales. In sum, the predictions of the existing retail sales models only partly confirm certain empirical aspects of price promotions. Keywords: chain level prices, milk products, price promotion, sale theories Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 511-521 Volume: 61 Issue: 11 Year: 2015 DOI: 10.17221/168/2014-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/168/2014-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201511-0003.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:61:y:2015:i:11:id:168-2014-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Shiwei LIU Author-Workplace-Name: Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, Jinlin, China Author-Name: Pingyu ZHANG Author-Workplace-Name: Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, Jinlin, China Author-Name: HE Xiuli Author-Workplace-Name: Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, Jinlin, China Author-Name: LI Jing Author-Workplace-Name: Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, Jinlin, China Title: Efficiency change in North-East China agricultural sector: A DEA approach Abstract: A non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique was applied to investigate the degree of efficiency and efficiency change of prefecture-level cities in the North-East China from 2000 to 2012. Mean pure technical efficiency in a DEA model with the number of agriculture was 0.79, indicating that there is a big potential for a more efficient input utilization in agricultural productivity. Decomposition results of the Malmquist index indicated that the average productivity (MALM) growth at 8.0 percent annually over the entire period in the North-East China and the major source of growth was the technical change. In order to stimulate the productivity growth, more attention should be paid to improving the production efficiency. Polices should be enacted to increase the technical investment in agriculture, to enhance the rural education and research in agriculture which may help farmers to improve the agricultural efficiency and productivity. Given the limitations of the Statistical Yearbook data, some field investigation may carry out in future studies. Keywords: agriculture, Data Envelopment Analysis, Malmquist productivity index, production efficiency Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 522-532 Volume: 61 Issue: 11 Year: 2015 DOI: 10.17221/233/2014-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/233/2014-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201511-0004.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:61:y:2015:i:11:id:233-2014-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Hung-Hao CHANG Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Agricultural Economics, National Taiwan University, Taiwan Author-Name: Jiun-Hao WANG Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Bio-industry Communication and Development, National Taiwan University, Taiwan Author-Name: Ashok K. MISHRA Author-Workplace-Name: Morrison School of Agribusiness, Arizona State University, USA Title: Do farmers' old age pension programs affect farm production? Empirical evidence of dairy farms in Taiwan Abstract: Although a considerable body of literature has examined the determinants of farm production, little is known about the role of the farmers' pension program. This study contributes to this knowledge gap by assessing the impact of the farmers' pension payments on farm production and the labour allocation using the Old Age Farmers' Pension program in Taiwan as a case study. In particular, this study quantified the effect of pension payments on the labour allocation of the farm operator and other family members, hired labourers, as well as on the farm production. A unique sample of 465 dairy farms was drawn from the Agricultural Census survey in Taiwan in 2010. The data set was compiled using the national administrative profile of the pension program in Taiwan in order to access an objective pension status for all recipients of the payments. By estimating an endogenous treatment effect model, it was found that the pension payments decreased the amount of the on-farm work of the farm operator. In contrast, it increased the on-farm labour use of the family members. Moreover, the availability of the pension program decreased the size of farm operation and the farm productivity. Keywords: farm production, labour allocation, Older Farmers' Pension Program Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 533-541 Volume: 61 Issue: 11 Year: 2015 DOI: 10.17221/244/2014-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/244/2014-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201511-0005.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:61:y:2015:i:11:id:244-2014-AGRICECON