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This paper is related to the application of the land policies implemented in France in 2nd half of the 20th century, and their consequences on the economy of the agricultural sector and the operation of the farms. Starting from a framework of historical and institutional analysis, the object of this research is to analyse the economic and institutional determinants of these land policies. In France of small landowners, the existence of the right of ownership is considered as an obstacle for a fast evolution of the structures of farms which are sufficient size to implement technological progress allowing the profits of productivity. The aim of the land policy followed in France since the end of the Second World War was to encourage the development of such farms. The main measures were the statute of the tenant farming, the control of the structures and the control of the land market by the SAFER. This policy is implemented at a departmental level by the representatives of the Farmers Unions and generally supports the access to the land for young farmers or the middle-sized farmers.

The incorporation of the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) to the common agrarian market of the European Union is an entrance the saturated market solving problems with surpluses of main agricultural commodities. That is why an increasing of competition among both current member states and the new members has been anticipated. The question related to productivity of factors as well as technology level influence on competitiveness on the occasion of lower prices of agricultural commodities that could bring about shift of trade between agricultural enterprises and food processors in the first stage of processing within commodity chain into some of new member countries (or changes within them) and steer flows of some of agricultural commodities utilised as raw materials. The decisive position of the second stage of agricultural products processing, characterised by highly finalised products, probably will push forward the existing member states, especially the main producers and major exporters of finalised food products in Europe. Their interest in generation and expansion of this kind of market with highly finalised food products on the CEECs food markets would be expected. Moreover, the "demand driven agriculture" implying qualitative criteria such as food safety and precaution, favourable method of production, environmental impact etc., presented by agricultural policies in last decade and for future, is largely influenced by final stages of agri-food commodity chains. Distributors and well-established processors are those who "translate" the consumer's demand to agricultural producers. Those decide significantly about the dimension, structure and market share of agricultural production in concrete area in essence. This situation has influenced effectiveness of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) exactly. Based upon the last reforms of the CAP in the EU evaluation, the significant changes of commodity markets regulation tools and a new approach partly related to income stabilisation policy partly to support of technological change and restructuring in wider social and regional aspects of the CAP are demonstrated there.

Soon after bark-beetle attack as well as after clear cutting, grown-up mountain Norway spruce forest cast the following mass of needles: 50-60 kg of dry matter per tree, or 18-20 tons per hectare, containing 8,800-10,000 kg/ha of carbon, 190 to 250 kg/ha of nitrogen, 13-16 kg/ha of phosphorus, 65-91 kg/ha of calcium, 9-13 kg/ha of magnesium and 56-67 kg/ha of potassium. These values were obtained by application of equations assessing needle mass from measured tree and plot parameters, and from chemical analyses of two types of needle material (from living and dead trees).

The effects of different tillage systems and dose reduction on the efficacy of triasulfuron & chlortoluron mixture in the post-emergence control of annual broad-leaved weeds in winter wheat and spring barley were studied on lessive pseudogley soil in north-eastern Croatiaduring 1997-2000. Total dry biomass production in untreated plots was significantly influenced by tillage and it was lowest in continuous mouldboard ploughing (99 kg/ha), medium and similar in mouldboard ploughing/disk harrowing alternating every second year and in chisel ploughing (218 kg/ha) whereas the biomass was highest in continuous disk harrowing (422 kg/ha). Thereby the proportion of annual broad-leaved weed biomass was 70, 63, and 28%, respectively. Chenopodium album L., Ambrosia artemisiifolia L., Ch. polyspermum L. and Polygonum aviculare L. are the most abundant annual weed species in all tillage treatments. One half and one quarter of the recommended rate decreased the control efficacy of total weed biomass by 12 and 19%, respectively in wheat and by 6 and 15%, respectively in barley compared to the highest dose but they still provided a very good biomass control of main annual weeds (94-96 percentage units). The efficacy of reduced herbicide doses in the control of annual broad-leaved weeds did not vary significantly between tillage treatments and growing seasons. Significant interaction with continuous disk harrowing tillage and one-quarter herbicide dose was detected in the last year of wheat trial when perennial weeds increased their biomass proportion 8 times compared to four years before.

Inclusion of the countries in Central Europe (CECs) in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union raises a large number of issues, not the least in the context of the accession negotiations among the current EU member states and the newcomers. However, in the process of enlargement, negotiations will also be necessary with other countries. This is because both the EU and the accession candidates have commitments in the WTO and inclusion of the CECs in the CAP may affect the nature of these commitments, as well as the ability of the enlarged Union to honour them. The paper deals with the fundamental problems in connection with presented themes.

The paper deals on theoretical level with the potential solution of unemployment of seasonal labour in agriculture and construction industry, i.e. in the sectors where the work is typically seasonal. It proposes compensation for salary and insurance premiums paid from the National Labour Office resources (so-called maintenance wage could be based on minimal wage or minimum subsistence income) during winter season. Recipients of those wage compensations would be employers who could employ these employees during winter season. The maintenance wage could substitute for unemployment benefit which is paid during their unemployment. This solution would not be applied nation-wide, only in regions where it would be economically efficient and socially required.

Changes in N-NO3- content and N-NO3- increase after incubation were studied in 1992-1998 in soils of two farms situated in identical soil and climatic conditions (in spring and autumn seasons). The two farms produce sugar beet and grain crops, but since 1991 they have used different types of organic fertilizers. Farmyard manure has regularly been applied to root crops on Dobrá Voda farm; since Chvalina farm does not have animal production, green manure and plowing-in of beet tops and straw are used for organic fertilization. Soils with regular applications of farmyard manure show a trend of lower N-NO3- content than the soils of the farm without animal production. At Dobrá Voda N-NO3- content was about 12 ppm N in spring and 9 ppm N in the autumn season while the respective values for Chvalina were 14 and 10 ppm N. On the hand, N-NO3- increase after soil incubation (12-14 ppm N) was higher in Dobrá Voda soils than in soils from Chvalina farm (5-8 ppm N).

The goal of the contribution is to publish the results of the research EP 12/2001-2003 (Brno, 2001-2002) and of the research intention GA MSM 4300007 (Brno, 2000-2001) aiming at application of modern approaches and solving methods of decision-making processes with the utilization of the PC network and new information technologies, and namely in connection with the application of the results of the research EP 7260 (Brno, 1998-2000) defining the method and algorithm of formation, implementation and changes of business strategies. It results from the analysis performed that business subjects managed in a modern way cannot get along without a well elaborated process of strategic decision-making and the said processes are getting more and more significant owing to the growing turbulent management environment and to the need to respond to these changes by the company management.

The effect of droplet spectra on efficiency of contact and systemic herbicides was evaluated. As a model components were used: mixture of clethodim 240 g/l + surfactant (90% raps fluid, 10% polyetoxyl esters); bentazon 600 g/l and bentazon 480 g/l + Wettol LF 150 g/l. The effect of droplet spectra on Elytrigia repens (L.) Desv. was evaluated using systemic herbicide (clethodim 240 g/l + surfactant). No significant differences of the efficiency were observed between different droplet sizes at the treatments of mixture of clethodim + adjuvant between very different droplet size ranging from VMD = 193 µm to VMD = 929 µm. The effect of droplet spectra on Chenopodium album L. and Galium aparine L. was evaluated using contact herbicides (bentazon 600 g/l and bentazon 480 g/l + Wettol LF 150 g/l). Six droplet spectra, ranging from VMD = 183 µm to VMD = 911 µm, were used. The efficiency significantly increased with smaller droplet sizes. The worst results were achieved by droplet spectra of 586 µm and 911 µm for both bentazon 600 g/l and bentazon 480 g/l + Wettol LF 150 g/l. Effect of droplet spectra is more pronounced in contact compounds. Translocation of systemic compounds may be the main mechanism that nullifies the effect of the droplets size and lower leaf coverage.

In Hungary, after the political and economical transition period of the nineties, the transformation of agriculture, the privatisation and the partial compensation brought about fundamental change in the land ownership structure. Recently, the private ownership of land has become dominant. As a result of the land compensation and the restoration of individual shares of the co-operatives members, unfavourable farm structures were established in a great number of cases; and consequently the redistribution of land property has become indispensable. The revival of the market is hold up, on one hand, by the present legislation of land acquisition (by Hungarian legal entities and foreigners) and, on the other hand, by the repugnance of the land acquisition of foreigners by a great number of people. The political risks, the EU accession and the changes to be expected concerning the EU subsidy schemes might also affect the land market in the long-term.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform in 2003 represents the entry into the third phase of the CAP. The final shape of the reform packet is a result of a compromise between external and internal interests of the EU members. The external interests, such as the liberalization of the agricultural trade under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and EU enlargement, represented a common platform that in principle did not create a barrier between the member's positions. On the other hand, internal interests of the members affected significantly their positions. The most important internal interests may be classified as follows: the EU budget spending, level of farm subsidies, effects of the reform on farm employment, farm income, rural viability, consumers, environment, food safety or animal welfare. Positions of the individual EU members were a function of the agricultural structures and competitiveness. Coalitions of the EU members were created during the reform negotiations: reform-liberal group, cohesion group, conservative group and the group of specific interests. Aims of the future members of the EU (10 candidate countries) in the reform were not to deteriorate their EU entry conditions and to guarantee equal treatment, comparable with that of the EU-15. The analysis of the EU member's positions under the CAP 2003 reform is an inspiration for defining of the Czech Republic's position, as a new member state, in the agricultural area.

In greenhouse conditions a 3-year small-plot experiment was conducted on loamy Chernozem originating from the humus horizon to investigate the effect of sodium humate application on yield, nitrate content and vitamin C content in green pepper fruits. The application of 5 kg of sodium humate per hectare in the form of watering 3 weeks after planting of pepper seedlings under full NPK nutrition (N nutrition was divided as follows: 2/3 of total N before planting and 1/3 of total N together with sodium humate 3 weeks after planting) resulted in a statistically significant increase in pepper yield by 13.6% at a concomitant significant reduction of nitrate content in pepper fruits by 12% and increase in vitamin C content by 28.6%.

The yield potential, quality and level of resistance to powdery mildew (Erysiphe pisi DC.) of afila smooth seeded pea (Pisum sativum L.) were tested in the field trials. The cultivars and breeding lines Mozart, Consort-R, AGT-01, Cebeco 1171 and AGT-GH surpassed the control cv. Gotik in the yields of dry seed, in contrast the dry seed yields of Highlight, AGT-KR, Melfort and LU 390-R2 were about 12-27% lower than that of the control. The low seed yield was caused by virus infections (PEMV, BYMV), root diseases (Pythium, Fusarium), and a low level of thousand seeds weight (TSW). Material crossing with donors possessing high yield potential, a higher TSW, and a higher tolerance to root diseases had a positive effect on the dry seed yield. The main objective of the resistant pea breeding programme is afila smooth seeded pea resistant to powdery mildew, with a high tolerance to viruses, root diseases, and lodging, with the stem length of 60 to75 cm, and with high yield potential.

This paper is focused on: (1) Managerial accounting analysis as a source of information provided for product costs management (mainly from the point of view of exploitation of budgeting and costing in selected companies in agriculture), (2) Possibilities of integration and information processing for product cost management, provided by managerial accounting in the framework of managerial information system of the company.

Biochemical variability between thirteen European and five Czech potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) cultivars grown in theCzechRepublic was studied by soluble protein, isoesterase, and isoperoxidase electrophoretic patterns. It was confirmed that cultivar differences in protein polymorphism can be revealed by applied electrophoretic patterns. It was shown that the different character of protein and isozyme profiles required different approaches to their evaluation. For complex patterns such as electrophoretic soluble protein spectra, it is more convenient to use the evaluation of their absorbance profiles and for simpler profiles of isozymes the evaluation based on the presence or absence of a band in a definite position (simple matching) should be used. In spite of the complexity of tetraploid disposition of analysed cultivars, the results suggested higher similarity of profiles between relative cultivars and they also indicated the existence of higher similarity between cultivars from the same breeding firm.

During the years of transition to market economy, a variety of farming types has evolved in Slovakia. Corporate farming is still pursued on about 80 per cent of the total agricultural land area, but a gradual increase of individual farms can be observed. A large portion of the registered individual farms is producing both for the market and for the self-supply of households, but the importance of specialised commercial farms has been growing during the recent years. Their share in the total number of registered individual farms can be estimated as 25 per cent and they specialise as a rule on cash crop products. The average production area is 130 hectares, but income differentiation is wide-ranging within this group of farms. The lowest income strata (which represent about 50 per cent of these farms) receive eight times less income, than the highest one - represented by less than 2 per cent of cases.

The contribution is focused on an analysis of the existing forms of farming in Czech agriculture which are characterised by an economical way of farming on agricultural land. Forms, an extent and economic connection of these farming ways are included. Above all, it deals with the programs of extensive use of land in worse natural conditions, principles of organic agriculture, farming in areas with a special water regime and so on. These ways of farming have to be a part of the state agrarian policy and the connected financial participation of the state in their supporting.

Change in the community of epigeal spiders and harvestmen (Araneae, Opiliones) was studied in an experimental apple orchard for six consecutive years. Five plots were surveyed by pitfall traps. Four of the plots were young (1-4 years); one plot was older (15-20 years). The abundance of epigeal arachnids increased with the age on the young plots, while it was constant on the older plot. There were significantly more arachnids on the young plots than on the older one. In turn, the diversity was significantly lower on the young than on the older plots. Lycosidae, Phalangiidae and Tetra-gnathidae dominated the young plots. The older plots were richer in Agelenidae, Clubionidae, Dysderidae, Gnaphosidae, Linyphiidae, Pisauridae and Salticidae. Principal species of the young and older plots were identified using multivariate analysis.

One of the conditions of accession of Slovakia into the European Union is the existence of a developed land market. At present, the official land price is mostly used in the evaluation of agricultural land. The price was calculated on the basis of normative production and normative costs required to achieve such production. As the land market gradually develops, market prices come into being; reflecting the effect of real market forces. With the full-fledged market prices, the task of official prices will be just an informative one. The land market prices will gradually assume all the tasks of the current official prices of the agricultural land.

The paper analyses the pay system in a particular enterprise in the Czech Republic and proposes a change in this system. The establishment of two scales based on pay classes per month is proposed: one scale that allows for overlaps of pay classes but does not allow for overruns into other categories, and another scale that allows for no overlaps at all.

We examined the impacts of variation in overstory structure and burning regime on understory vegetation in the longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) forest of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Georgia, U.S.A. On sandy upland sites surrounding the Okefenokee Swamp and on islands, we established five randomly-located 0.04-ha plots within each of six study areas. The plots varied in overstory density, past management and fire regime. We measured overstory tree size of longleaf pines in the 0.04-ha plots and percent cover of ground cover species in five 1-m2 subplots nested within each 0.04-ha plot. We also calculated diversity indices for the ground cover species. There was no significant relationship between overstory basal area and any diversity measure. Even at the subplot level, there was no significant relationship observed between the diversity measures and distance to the nearest tree, presumably a surrogate for overstory density. The diameter (DBH) of the nearest tree exhibited a slight influence over the Shannon Index, and the nearest tree's height was significantly related to evenness in each subplot. There were varied relationships between individual species and fire regime or nearest tree measurements. There was a definite, but statistically insignificant, trend of decreasing diversity with increasing years since the last burn. Height of the nearest tree positively influen­ced evenness, probably reflecting the influence of stochasticity and amount of needle deposition (influencing fire behavior) over a wide area. Within the generally equal fire-return interval across sites, individual fire-events and site-specific behavior apparently influence understory diversity. It is not surprising that the last burn would affect species richness, even more so than the number of growing-season burns, other studies support this observation. The presence of obligate seeding and (clonal) sprouting as dominants in the ground cover suggests that the fire-return interval is not regular. The cycling of fire-return intervals, even within the manage­ment-prescribed 2- to 4-year range, and the variation by microsite appear to provide sufficient variability of disturbance to create diversity in the ground-level cohort. Site-specific relationships between particular species and the nearest tree suggest that even a narrowly-prescribed fire management regime can provide sufficient diversity.

Recently we can mention in the CR a step by step enterprise number increase in the area of production, transport services, services and financial organisations, which practically apply internal departments of controlling or audit into their managerial structures. That is why it is required to dedicate a wider publication space to the information on the role and principles of managerial instruments, which are provided by controlling and Internal Audit for business administration and financial management. The goal is to ensure a higher quality of preparation or response on the still emerging forms of our enterprises co-operation with foreign business subjects and to match step at the level of building and in particularly in effectiveness of business informational systems usage for managerial process (especially for planning and decision making procedures control) in all areas of business functions. Internal controlling instruments application and using results of risks evaluations by internal audit simultaneously contributes to the improvement of level and effectiveness of intra-enterprise monitoring as a modern conception of control usage in business management. Management level increase and increase of management competency are the conditions of ensuring our enterprises competitiveness.

The paper presents fundamental ideas of European social market economy that are to be applied to formulate the "European Model of Agriculture". In connection with the needs of further development of the Common Agricultural Policy, food strategy and regional policy, some challenges to the modern and perspective strategy of agriculture and food production in the EU are formulated. A new European challenge to strengthen the principle of solidarity, sustainability, multi-functionality and subsidiarity is an appreciable point of departure to solve the problems in Czech agriculture.

The main focus of the future solutions will be sharing of knowledge. The coming systems will be designed and implemented as advanced distributed interoperable Web services that will share data, information, knowledge and services across Europe. The innovative systems will also implement advanced functionality for mobile data access; location based services, personalised and position sensitive services. The interoperability on the level of data as well as services will be important topic in next years. The WirelessInfo project was one from the first worldwide practical implementation of GIS interoperable standards on mobile platform.

Methods were elaborated that would specify factors affecting the accuracy of the output of LANDSAT satellite images used to evaluate the dynamics of changes in the health condition of birch stands. In the period of investigations, in 1994-2000, the foliage of birch stands was very thin as a consequence of the large-scale absence of flushing in 1997. The output of this method is also specification of the degree of foliage of birch trees based on the altitude, stand age and forest site types in the air-polluted area of the Krušné hory Mts. (Northern Bohemia). These methods can be applied to other broadleaved stands.

Approach to the problems of sugar-beet tubers surface damage dependence on harvesting technology. Investigation of sugar-beet tubers damage when falling on wood and iron surfaces and in the next case tuber damage caused by their fall on the tuber heap. Research of damage rate dependence on the fall height. Evaluation of damage rate was carried by the I.I.R.B. method (method used by all sugar-beet growing countries of Western Europe). The results refer that no considerable differences in damage rate after the fall on the wood or iron bottoms have been ascertained. The height of 1.5 m can be considered in all cases as the limit value of the tubers fall, when share of heavily damaged tubers reached acceptable values of 10-15%, but that the share increases significantly at higher falling height. The lifting bodies construction requires also a knowledge of dependence between root depth and force for tuber release from soil in relation to the tuber weight. Medium force needed for tubers lifting ranges from 17 to 27 kp, maximum value 50 kp was found out for tubers of weight above 3 kg.

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 aim of this presentation is to introduce partial results of this research project aimed to the efficiency of businesses working with the organic systems. The proposal of mesures will be formed with the respect of results of analysis to support organic businesses, to increase organic land area corresponding with the progress in the EU and therefore to help to satisfy increasing demand for organic food, last but not least also to prove, that organic agriculture is truly functioning part of multifunctional agriculture.

Three-year trials were conducted to study germination and emergence of prickly lettuce (Lactuca serriola L.) achenes, increments of shoot dry matter and susceptibility of the weed to selected herbicides. The germination rates of achenes at10°C (92%),20°C (97%) and30°C (95%) did not indicate any significant differences within 20 days from sowing. The highest percentage emergence of prickly lettuce achenes was determined after their sowing into a depth of1 mm. Differences from the variants of sowing onto the soil surface (0 mm), into a depth of 10 and20 mm were significant. There were no differences in the emergence rates from a depth of 10 and20 mm. The highest increments of shoot dry matter were observed when prickly lettuce plants were grown for 4-7 weeks after sowing at20°C. The effect of selected herbicides on prickly lettuce plants treated at the stage of 2-3 true leaves was evaluated on the basis of a change in the content of shoot dry matter. A significant decrease in dry matter against the control was recorded in all variants after herbicide application. The effect (expressed by a lower dry matter content) was significantly higher after the combination amidosulfuron + iodosulfuron-methyl + mefenpyr-diethyl (10 + 2.5 + 25 g/ha) was used than after the application of tribenuron (10.85 g/ha) and picolinafen + cyanazine (120 g + 480 h). The effect of amidosulfuron (22.5 g/ha) was significantly higher than in the variants treated with tribenuron, picloram + clopyralid (16.75 + 66.75 g/ha), clopyralid (90 g/ha) and picolinafen + cyanazine (150 + 600 g/ha). The best effects were produced by herbicides containing amidosulfuron and iodosulfuron as active ingredients.