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Restoration of forest soil character after the change of agricultural land use has not been studied yet despite the large areas reforested since the late 40ies of the last century. This process takes place throughout Europe to an increasing extent at present. The reformation of forest soils was studied in the area of Český Rudolec town: Natural Forest Area 16 - Czech-Moravian Uplands, altitude 600-630 m a.s.l., bedrock is built of granites and gneisses, soil type is Cambisol, forest site type 5K1. The process of restoration of a new humus form was analysed in plantations of American red oak (Quercus rubra), Swedish birch (Betula pendula), European larch (Larix europea) and Norway spruce (Picea abies), the site was homogeneous. The particular tree species accumulated 12.81, 13.81, 46.57 and 44.76 t/ha of surface organic matter during the last 30-40 years, these values are typical of forest sites at lower and middle altitudes and corresponding tree species composition. The effect of broadleaved species and conifers was markedly different, in the first case pH in KCl ranged 3.8-3.9 (mineral soil) and 3.5-5.2 (holorganic horizons), being 3.5-3.8 (mineral soil) and 3.1-5.1 (holorganic layers) for the conifers. Visible effects of the particular tree species were also evident in the soil adsorption complex and in the contents of plant available and total nutrients. The results can be summarised and generalised: - the forest soil character is reformed at lower and middle altitudes in a relatively short time from the aspect of surface humus accumulation and basic soil chemistry (30-40 years), - birch exhibited the best revitalisation effect among the studied species, - American red oak and Norway spruce humus accumulation potentials were different although the soil chemistry was comparable, - Norway spruce did not show a remarkable degradation effect until now, - on the contrary, European larch appeared as a site degrading species.

The contribution deals with the analysis of methodological approaches to the general evaluation of enterprise results. It is concerned mainly about the methodology of evaluation of financial health of enterprises in the frame of the program SAPARD and further about the possible outline of methodology in the frame of the Sector Operational Plan for agriculture and the Payment Agency. This contribution was prepared in frame of solution of the Institutional Research Intention MSM 411100013.

The article analyses situation on the labour market in 1999-2003, with particular focus on the agricultural population, and explains the pressure that forces agricultural employers to reduce their full-time staff and rely more on the seasonal and short-term employment arrangements. In the recent past, the segment of rotating workers (who take up short-term seasonal jobs between periods of unemployment), has taken on quite a significant dimension. The article also analyses territorial aggregations with high incidence of agricultural unemployment. It points at the regular, seasonal and increased layouts of agricultural workers who end up in the register of unemployed. It identifies the social risk connected with the seasonal type of work arrangements in agriculture from the viewpoint of the labour and social protection and increased social marginalisation of this social group.

A possibility to increase the efficiency of plant regeneration from microspore-derived embryos of selected botanical varieties of Brassica oleracea was investigated from 2001 to 2004. More than 400 regenerants of R₁ generation were derived in kohlrabi, cabbage and cauliflower by means of different modifications of microspore culture technique. Distinct genotype differences in embryogenic responsibility and regenerative ability of microspore embryos to whole plants were detected. The highest frequency of embryogenesis and subsequent regeneration of plants were achieved in cauliflower cultivar Siria F1, kohlrabi line P7 and some experimental F1 hybrids of cauliflower. The best production of embryos was obtained when donor plants were grown in the growth chamber under controlled light and temperature conditions. The regeneration of plantlets was considerably improved by repeated subculture of cotyledonary embryos on media with various combinations of phytohormones and excision of the cotyledons from mature embryos. The percentage of plant regeneration from subcultured embryos in kohlrabi ranged from 11.11 to 63.64%, in cauliflower from 23.53 to 46.19% and in cabbage from 5.88 to 52.00%. The utilization of regenerants for doubled haploid line production is often complicated by male sterility also in plants with the normal diploid chromosome number.

In 1986, the UN ECE established the International Cooperative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests (hereinafter ICP Forests) to respond on the growing concern about forest damage caused since the beginning of eighties by air pollution load. Pan-European grid of the (ICP Forests) monitoring plots represents one of the most important systems of forest ecosystems assessing and checking. The Czech Republic is unfortunately well known due to this problem and so the country joined ICP Forest Programme since the very beginning. The paper presents general information on Czech forest stand condition that gained through various methods in the past as well as in the frame of ICP Forests. The participation in the International Cooperative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests (ICP Forests) represents a contribution of the EU candidate country to the fulfillment of the Reg. (EEC) No. 3528/86. However it seems that effects and importance of air pollution are decreasing, a lot of new stress situations exists and there is a need for continuing the programme.

Nowadays, many enterprises face the problem of implementing their enterprise information system in order to keep pace with their competition. It holds generally for all types of enterprises, as e.g. manufacturing, agricultural, trading, financial, transportation, educational, etc. This paper deals with the basic rules for building an information system of the enterprise, particularly of medium or large ones. The attention is focussed at the problems each enterprise must address before starting an IS project. These are mainly the enterprise information policy planning, project feasibility and forms of its management.

In the year before the accession to the European Union, the Slovak agricultural sector reported a loss of SKK 2.4 billion and following a profitable year, the earnings were reduced by SKK 2.8 billion. The situation was caused by a number of reasons, namely reduced sales of agricultural products, damage resulting from adverse weather effects (cold weather, hail, drought and swine fever), as well as widening of the price gap compared to the year before (increasing input prices in agriculture and decreasing purchase prices of agricultural products, especially in livestock production). Legal entities and natural persons experienced mixed business success. While 51% of legal entities made profit, the figure rose to 76% in the group of natural persons. Both the agricultural cooperatives and trading companies performed with a loss. The loss per hectare of agricultural land (a.l.) was substantially lower in the case of business companies. Natural persons - private farmers were profitable over the period. The gap between the profitable and loss-making enterprises has widened. Some 60% of profitable enterprises owned by legal entities made only a small profit below SKK 0.5 million. The loss-making performance was typical for more productive areas of Slovakia. This was related to stronger effects of adverse climate in 2003.

In the Czech Republic the increased utilization of the biofuels, especially for diesel engines, has been registered in the last ten years. The rape-seed oil based fuels - called biodiesel, is the most extended. The use of rape-seed oil brings a good ecological and agronomic aspect, e.g. positive energetic and CO₂ balance, biological decomposition, etc. A special attention should be paid for the emissions. The paper presents the practical results of the performance with the commercially available biodiesel and their mixtures with different quantity of fermented ethanol. The testing was realized with an unmodified AVIA 712.18 truck engine and an unmodified ZETOR 7701 tractor engine according to thirteen-points homologation test method EHK R49 (ČSN EN ISO 8178-4). Biodiesel NATURDIESEL, according to the Czech Standard ČSN 65 6508, served as a basis for fuel blends and such a comparison fuel. Based on the experiment, it can be said, that the most suitable fuel blend is biodiesel + 2% addition of fermented bioethanol according to following points. This addition significantly reduces the NO_x emissions. At the AVIA engine the reduction is about 54% in comparison with non-additived fuel. With the Zetor engine, it is decreased 88% of its primary value. Even in cause of smokiness, the situation is similar favourable. The power output parameters are almost constant. No significant increase of fuel consumption has been observed. However, there is higher share of unburned hydrocarbons in dependence on increased alcohol content. In this case, the lower concentration of alcohol in fuel blend is advantageous, which is in accordance to the biodiesel with 2% addition of alcohol. Higher share of ethanol is not interesting from the point of view of fuel requirement and even from the economic point of view, because the price of these fuel blends increases, due to the co-solvent addition.

Sweet chestnut Castanea sativa Mill. is an introduced species in the Czech Republic. It is recorded roughly from 300 localities. To the end of 2002, the occurrence of chestnut was verified at about 140 macrolocalities. The most northern locality recorded so far was Choustníkovo Hradiště in the region of Hradec Králové. Chestnuts occur generally to an altitude of 500 m (80% of all examined localities), at higher altitudes they suffer from climatic extremes particularly late frosts. The occurrence of chestnut was recorded at 27 localities (ca. 20% localities under investigation) where altitudes exceed 500 m. The highest location of chestnut is locality Nejdek, Karlovy Vary District where chestnut trees thrive at an altitude of 678 m. At altitudes over 600 m, two other localities were recorded. The health condition of chestnut is relatively good. At some localities, however, crown drying occurs as a result of not quite ideal climatic conditions. Within our research, quarantine Cryphonectria parasitica (Murr.) Barr. was determined for the first time in the Czech Republic at the only examined locality.

The tree species composition of forests in the Czech Republic has changed due to the human impact over the time. Nowadays, the idea of reducing the area with spruce stands and of increasing the area with broadleaved stands is widely discussed. The paper compares the target species composition with the presentone and creates four groups of areas with the largest and/or negligible differences between the target and the actual tree species composition using the Czech typology school.

In a controlled pot trial, plants of birch (Betula pendula Roth) were treated in six variants: acid watering (pH 3), acid watering with spraying, drought, ammonium sulphate fertilisation, ammonium sulphate fertilisation in combination with drought, and control. The response to the treatment with ammonium sulphate in terms of the increment was discordant as it increased the sensitivity of birch to frost. Drought had a negative effect on increments. A combination of ammonium sulphate and drought; drought; ammonium sulphate and sprayed acid watering delayed the shedding of leaves; this was due to a longer vegetation period, significantly higher nitrogen content in these variants, with the exception of drought.

The article summarises the results of the analysis of value added (VA) in agriculture and food industry and the share of intermediate consumption in the value added. The results show that during 1993-2000, the Slovak agricultural sector (farming, hunting, forestry and fisheries), where farming is clearly dominant, together with the construction sector, reported the most significant decline in their relative contribution to the overall value added created in the national economy, whereas the contribution of market services increased. The moderate increase (1998, 1999) in the contribution of the food sector to the total value added in the national economy, as well as to industrial production (2000), has been brought to a halt and, eventually, began deflating. The tendency of declining participation of the agricultural sector in value added was also typical for the EU member states and for the CEFTA countries. Agriculture remains dominant in terms of its contribution to value added in the agri-food sector (54.5% in the year 2000). In the category of land-farming holdings, the share of intermediate consumption in value added increased (both in co-operatives and business companies, whether loss-making or profitable). The farmers in mountainous areas spent per 1 SKK of value added 0.65-1.42 SKK more of intermediate consumption than farmers in the maize production area and 0.54-1.32 SKK more than farmers in the sugar-beet production area. In the production of foodstuffs, beverages and tobacco processing, which is more demanding in terms of consumed inputs than agricultural production (the same is true for developed economies), the ratio between intermediate consumption and value added differed depending on the branch concerned. Agriculture was one of the most demanding sectors in terms of fixed asset investments necessary to generate value added. The initial decline was brought to stop in 1998 and the relative share of fixed assets (FA) in value added (VA) started to increase, particularly in the year 2000, mainly under the influence of increased support to farmers' capital investments. Although the creation of value added in agricultural co-operatives initially demanded more investments in fixed assets than it was the case in farming business companies, the difference narrowed over the time. The group of loss-making entities reported the FA/VA ratios twice as high as the group of profitable entities, which sends a signal to the former to revise the structure of their production and to improve management practices. Similarly as in the case of intermediate consumption, also the FA/VA ratio increased as the production conditions deteriorated. The ratios in the production of foodstuffs and beverages (without tobacco processing) were significantly lower than those in the farming sector. In 1999, the lowest FA/VA ratio occurred in the production of durable bakery products and the highest in the production of fruit and vegetable juices.

The objective of the article is to describe the possibilities of the rural development in the Bratislava region. The rural region is represented by 71 municipalities in districts Malacky, Pezinok, Senec and by parts of the city Bratislava - Záhorská Bystrica, Vajnory, Jarovce, Rusovce and Čunovo. The analyses of the rural region are the segments of the Single Programming Document (SPD) for the 2004-2006. It aims to support the areas with the main economic and social problems according the Goal 2. The article deals with the development possibilities in industry, market services, tourism and agriculture. The branch structure, main economic parameters of effectiveness and production, employment, wages are analysed in period 1999-2002. The article contains also the results of SWOT analysis and the short-term activities to supporting rural development.

The paper analyses formation of specialized activities of Slovak agrarian services. The paper focuses attention on the definition of agrarian services, evaluation of their position and progress of their transformation, their quantitative development and distribution in the regions of the Slovak Republic, as well as on their economic results during the period from 1995 to 2001. Biological, technical, and other specialized services significantly influence the reproduction process of the plant and animal production even in the period of European integration.

The paper proposes a method of assessing the potential risks of the future development of stands in relation to a climatic change. To assess risks of the future development of a stand simple point scales have been worked up based on primary properties of a site and a stand according to data of the forest management plan (FMP). In assessing the health condition, the risk of damage to stands by Armillaria sp. in the felling age was evaluated on the basis of a present attack by Armillaria sp. and also defoliation of the crown primary structure assessed during a simple field examination. The evaluation was carried out in the region of the Křtiny Training Forest Enterprise (TFE) Masarykův les, ranger district Proklest, in 2002. The study was conducted in 118 Norway spruce stands aged more than 20 years. The majority of evaluated stands ranked among the category of high and medium risk from the viewpoint of site and stand risks and among the category of high Armillaria sp. attack.

This article presents information about the development and the structure of indices regarding natural and legal persons in the years 2000 and 2002. Finally, the development of indices is compared with the year 1990. The article characterizes the development of companies, which are farming land, like cooperatives, business companies, state owned companies and natural persons. It demonstrates the number and structure of companies in the branches of the agri-food sector divided into agriculture, agricultural services and food industry. Moreover, the article presents agricultural land area used by natural and legal persons. This contribution draws information from the results of the questionnaire, which was made by the regional offices of the Ministry of Agriculture. In conclusion, the article suggests the possible orientation of organizations in the short time period

The paper is a part of solution of the grant awarded by the Ministry of Agriculture (NAZV) No. QF 3276 and analyzes the influence of the price level of imported bottled wine on the competition in the wine-production sector in the Czech Republic. The comparison of the industrial producers' prices in the Czech Republic with the average import prices of bottled wine in particular years brings us to conclusion that a threat for Czech producers is first the price of the imported table wine (white and red) at present. The average import prices of this wine category varied under the minimal average industrial producers' prices in 1998-2003. The average import price of the white table wine in containers up to 2 liters was 19 CZK per liter in 2003 and the minimal average industrial producers' price was 26.90 CZK per liter in the same year. The price level is higher in case of the red table wine in general, but the average annual import prices (in 2003, 23 CZK per liter) also varied under the minimal average industrial producers' prices in all analyzed years (in 2003, 29.70 CZK per liter). The situation is more positive for the Czech wine producers in case of the quality wine. There is a space for an increase in price. The average import prices were by 25 CZK per liter per year higher in average than the maximal industrial producers' prices in the Czech Republic in all analyzed years. However, while the average annual import price of the white quality wine increases (50 CZK per liter in 1998; 93 CZK per liter in 2003) and creates a bigger space for the Czech wine producers in the price policy, the average annual import prices of the red quality wine varied around 80 CZK per liter in all analyzed years.

The evaluation of financial health of an enterprise becomes very important in Czech businesses. Among other factors, it is so because it is viewed as a precondition for being eligible for some of the EU structural funds. Models of enterprise financial health were created mainly on the basis of objective evaluation of indicators and discrimination analysis for prosperous and bankrupting enterprises. Little attention was paid to the influence of particular indicators on the total value of enterprise financial health. Using the principles of objective and formal adequacy of the indicators, as well as their standardisation, and the methods of multicriterial evaluation together with the determination of particular indicators independence can improve the creation of financial health indicators and facilitate a higher rate of its objectiveness.

The paper describes the policy, legislative and organisational context and structure of financing the forestry from public funds in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland and Slovenia in the 90's. The first half of the nineties was the period of the most significant changes, whereas more stable and systematic financing of forestry was generally started in the second half of the nineties. The supported activities reflected main problems and challenges facing the forestry in individual countries. In the Czech Republic the substantial support was designed for protective measures and restitution of damaged stands. In Poland, the increase of forest area and restitution of forest stands damaged by air-pollution were the priority. Slovenian budget supported mainly the improvement of road infrastructure, forest management planning, as well as sustainable utilisation of forests through marking of trees for cutting. Estonian forestry received the relatively lowest subsidies allocated mainly to the preparation of management plans and extension services. Subsidies were the most important instruments of support. In Poland, however, tax exemptions and concessions were significantly higher than the value of financial means allocated from the public funds.

Forest management in the Czech Republic (CR) was not shaped in the environment of natural forests but in the territory that was influenced by unregulated felling and animal grazing for a long time. Hence the fear for sustainable and balanced benefits from forests endangered by long-term uncontrolled exploitation was legitimate. Almost after three centuries of application of the sustainability principle, forests are considered not only as a source of renewable wood raw material but also as a tool of the environment formation. Mountain forests are an important landscape component of this country. They are an object of specific importance from the aspect of natural environment conservation, stabilization of natural processes and general landscape homeostasis. In addition, they fulfil a number of production and non-production functions. Cardinal elements of sustainable forest management in the CR conditions are as follows: management of the forest as an ecosystem, i.e. transition from exclusive care of forest tree species and their stands to care of the whole forest ecosystems; restructuring (conversion, reconstruction) of damaged and declining forests; optimum (species, genetic, spatial, age) structure of forest ecosystems differentiated according to site conditions and management targets; differentiated transition from general management to group or individual methods; utilization and support of spontaneous processes such as natural regeneration, competition and other principles of self-regulation. The above cardinal elements of sustainable forest management are applicable to forests of the CR in general, but their importance considerably increases in mountain forests where many species survive on the margin of subsistence. Moreover, mountain forests of CR have been heavily destroyed by anthropogenic factors, especially air-pollution ecological stresses, during the last three or four decades.

This article sets out to analyze the value added generation in the Slovak agrarian sector at the time of the accession to the EU compared to which we are severely lagging behind in the overall generation of gross value added. A more detailed analysis of the value added generation over the recent years in a group of agricultural enterprises being legal entities indicates that the enterprise efficiency expressed in terms of value added generation is markedly differentiated depending on the natural conditions of the locations where individual businesses operate. Great differences in the added value between enterprises can also be found in the group of enterprises having the same natural conditions. The reason for this is a differentiation in the degree to which intensification inputs are utilized due to high prices, lack of financial resources, inefficient combination of inputs used and insufficient recognition of the importance of the value added by managers, particularly in planning of production structures and production finalization grade.

The requirements for compliance with the manufacturing and quality standards and the related investments in the hygienic and structural upgrading of establishments before Slovakia's accession to the European Union meant that the Slovak food processors had to intensify their effort, revise their objectives (where necessary) and increase the volume of investments, particularly during 2003. Many entrepreneurs, particularly in the animal production, decided to go out of business, mainly because the continued operation of obsolete slaughterhouses would require considerable investment effort; at the end of the day, some meat producers closed their slaughter operations and focused on specialised meat processing. Compared with the year before, the profit of food processors declined by 23%. This was due to the faster decline in revenues than expenses, increased cost of revenues, and the reduced output. Although profitable companies still prevailed, the percentage of loss-making companies increased in comparison with the previous year. The starch industry, sugar industry and the confectionery (including coffee substitutes) industry were some of the sectors where all operators were profitable.

N fertilization has a substantial influence on sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) seed yield and quality. It was also well established that high-yielding sunflower hybrids had more N requirement than old cultivars such as open-pollinated ones. However, in Turkey, no sufficient information regarding the response of new developed oilseed sunflower hybrids to nitrogen fertilization under irrigated conditions. Therefore, a 2-year study was conducted to determine the effects of nitrogen application rates on the growth, yield, and yield components of two oilseed sunflower hybrids (AS-508 and Super 25) under irrigated conditions. In this study, all plant parameters were significantly influenced by applied nitrogen fertilizer rates. Yield response to nitrogen rates was positive and linear. Our research data indicated that under irrigated conditions N rate of 120 kg/ha was adequate for sunflower production in this region.

In the period between 2001 and 2003 selected biological, morphological and technological characteristics were experimentally investigated in the pepper assortment. 12 traits that are important characteristics of individual varieties were studied for different growing methods and for utilisation in breeding work.

The accession of the Czech Republic in the European Union has brought a necessity to adopt a range of new legal regulations and to apply them in our conditions. Their application however connects with a highly demanding and complex process of implementation of the individual acts of law, administrative and time requirements. One of laws that had to be adopted is the Act No. 76/2002 Coll. on integrated prevention and pollution control, on the integrated pollution register and on amendment to some Acts (hereinafter the IPPC Act). The Act imposes an obligation for all operators of various industrial and processing plants working at certain production or processing capacities have to obtain a so called integrated license without which their activities will not be permitted to continue in the future. At the beginning of the integrated licensing procedure, each subject concerned by the Act is obliged to file an application for the integrated license at a relevant regional authority. There is an analysis of the present time of the IPPC problems in Czech food industry. At the present time, the procedure of licensing and applications for the integrated license are at various stages of the process in individual enterprises.

In any activity, thus at work as well, there is an influence of the environment on a human being. This environment, to which every worker has his own individual relationship, becomes a part and background of the worker's life. The realization of these interactions and relationships markedly affects achieved working results. The ecologically harmless technologies will not be used in forestry considerately towards the environment if forestry workers do not change their negative attitudes to their environment. In this project we tried to map out environmental knowledge of forestry workers.