Volume 121-Issue 3

Kosovo and Albania, in a manner similar to other Western Balkan countries, face serious challenges in relation to national food safety and control in terms of legislation, infrastructure, institutional capacity and private investments. Consequently, food safety is a major concern for consumers in this region. The objective of this study was to gain a better understanding of consumer perspectives on food safety and quality. Two surveys, one with consumers in Prishtina and one in Tirana, targeted more than 600 consumers. Despite the prevalent problems with food safety, Kosovars perceive domestic dairy products as significantly better than Albanians do when compared with imported food products. Conversely, Albanian consumers use food safety- and quality-related information about cheese and milk more frequently. The most frequently used safety and quality cues for both samples are expiry date, domestic and local origin and brand reputation. Food safety certificates are used by Albanians more often than by Kosovars, and international food standards such as ISO, HACCP or Global GAP are mostly unknown to both consumer groups.

mountainous areas and the valorisation opportunities arising from the certification of origin. The study explores consumer preferences toward the main attributes of goat-kid meat such as origin, weight and quality-certification. A Conjoint Choice Experiment was utilised to design the survey and a Latent Class Analysis Model employed to analyse the results of a survey carried out with 250 residents living in urban areas of Tirana. Origin was found to be the most important factor for all three identified consumer classes. This result can be used to producers’ advantage if labelling and other marketing tools are available to inform consumers of the products’ origin. Implementation and enforcement of origin identification should be a priority for the government and other stakeholders.

This study assesses the effectiveness of the Subsidy per Head Scheme (SPHS) in increasing milk productivity, land use, herd size and income in dairy farms across the seven regions of Kosovo. SPHS represents one of the largest coupled subsidy programs in the agricultural sector of Kosovo in terms of farmer participation and budget allocation. We use a Propensity Score Matching approach to assess the impact of this program by comparing a group of participants with a group of non-participants during the 2013–2014 farming seasons. We test the robustness of the impact results using four different matching algorithms. Results reveal SPHS was not effective in increasing land use, gross income and farm size (number of cows), although SPHS had a limited impact on improving milk productivity. In addition, the study highlights the need to reformulate coupled subsidies and develop new, complementary strategies that address farmers’ needs more efficiently.

Usable agricultural land in Iceland is predominantly represented by permanent grasslands and pasture used for livestock grazing, while the cultivation of arable crops such as cereals and potatoes has a very modest incidence on the total agricultural surface area. The main purpose of this research, therefore, was to assess the technical efficiency of dairy and sheep farming across Iceland’s regions using annual census data for the years 2008 and 2017. The assessment of the technical efficiency of farms – one that is able to analyse multi-input/output production functions – has been estimated through the use of the non-parametric approach of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The research findings have highlighted the need for farmers to reduce certain inputs such as labour costs and general productive overheads, as well as to address their efforts to extensive forms of livestock farming, notably sheep rearing, which is able to take advantage of the abundant and rich grasslands. In general, sheep farms have been found to be technically more efficient than dairy, while farms located in the capital region have been shown to have lower levels of technical efficiency overall.

Against the backdrop of liberalised trade in agricultural commodities in the twenty-first century, world food prices have risen at a faster pace since 2007. Food price volatility is inextricably connected with the problems of food security due to its implications for the availability of food, household incomes and purchasing power, malnutrition, per capita consumption expenditure and the changing patterns of  consumption on the part of poor people. In India’s case, a declining trend in the availability of food grains in the post-reform period can be explained by the encouragement given to the export of food grains due to India’s comparative advantage vis-à-vis the international market in relation to the pricing of food grains. However, the mere availability of food in the country is obviously not sufficient to ensure access to food for all households. In this context, our main objective in this paper is to evaluate the implications of food price volatility on access to food across decile classes in India. Empirical results reveal that consumption expenditure differs in both spatial (rural and urban) and temporal (pre- and post-2008) dimensions; specifically, the relative loss of consumption expenditure is significant in urban regions in comparison to rural regions in post-2008. In...

The current situation on European agricultural labour markets and the expected demographic development emphasise the need to address the issues of work and working time organisation in order to attract a young generation to agriculture. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the use of modern individual methods of working time organisation within agricultural companies. Data was collected through a quantitative survey consisting of 259 active agricultural companies in the Czech Republic. Results suggest that three factors were responsible for working time organisation in agricultural companies: support of flexible employment forms, employee productivity and the use of specialists. The right working time organisation of all age groups supports the cooperation of all employees and ensures knowledge continuity.

The global food system, from fertiliser production to food packaging, is responsible for approximately one-third of all humancaused greenhouse gas emissions. The ecological footprint captures the ecological assets that a population needs to produce, the natural resources it consumes, and to absorb its waste. The carbon footprint as the main component represents more than 50% of the total ecological footprint. Carbon footprint is said to be a widely accepted indicator of GHG intensity, originating from different economic activities. Due to its important role in raising awareness of global warming, scientists and policymakers also use it as a management tool for estimating environmental pollution. In contrast, the application of carbon footprint on the agricultural sector is still limited in the literature. The paper aims to explore what agriculture-specific factors influence the carbon footprint at a global level based on 1961-2013 data. The study employs feasible generalized least squares estimator along with panel unit root tests. Results show that carbon footprint is stimulated by economic development and agricultural production (arable land, agricultural machinery, fertilizer use), and in addition, agricultural exporting has a positive impact on the carbon footprint. By contrast, the growth of carbon footprint is negatively related to the higher share...