Tag: rural areas

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.

A brief overview of rural Romanian phenomena and processes in modern history reveals that rural areas and small rural households were highly stable systems, providing social and economic security. In all history, except during the communist period, small-scale agriculture was and continues to be the main provider of jobs in the rural labour market in the absence of other non-agricultural employment opportunities. In all times, consumption of self-produced food, supported by small farms, has had a leverage effect against poverty. More than that, the statistical information shows that small farms achieve higher levels of economic performance compared to large farms by diversifying their production structure and, through that, they make an important contribution to national food security. In the post-communist period (i.e. after 1989) in Romania, these functions and roles of the small farms have been restored and are widely recognised. If the meaning of ‘socio-economic resilience’ is the ability of an individual, of a household, community, region or country to resist, to adapt and to recover quickly after a crisis, shock or change, the economic and social functions and roles assumed in the transition period by small Romanian rural farms give them the attributes of a resilient answer of ...

This paper, firstly, identifies the scale and spatial differentiation of registered female unemployment in rural areas of Poland, defined according to the new Degree of Urbanisation (DEGURBA) classification of LAU2 regions used in the European Union (EU) for the Labour Force Survey, since the onset of the global economic crisis, and secondly, investigates the reasons for the occurrence of very high female unemployment rates that are either stable or increasing and very high gender gaps in unemployment rates. Quantitative analysis identified 27 rural communes in Poland affected by such problems. Most are situated in the north and several in the south-east of the country, mainly in post-state-owned farming areas. The results of semi-structured telephone interviews with representatives of local authorities of nine of those communes indicate that despite the different locations and different types of LAU2 regions, female unemployment is caused by similar factors: liquidation of state-owned farms not followed by any new job opportunities, peripheral location not attractive for external (out-of-commune) investors, lack of entrepreneurial skills, experience and finance to start own businesses, low income or poverty of inhabitants significantly limiting the purchase of goods and services, thus limiting the demand that could be met by local SMEs, and ...

Sustainable rural development is one of the social, economic and territorial cohesion aspects of the European Union. In the current financial perspective 2007-2013 rural areas development is supported by the Common Agricultural Policy, which does not always contribute to improvement of their vitality and cohesion with urban areas. The main theses organising the analyses presented in this paper are as follows: The problem lies in the division of the funds into particular priorities of rural development and the rural development is still dominated by the agriculture approach. The European Commission and the Member States’ approaches to rural development focus on agricultural production and improving its conditions or environment protection. Cohesion Policy instruments intervention will be an essential condition for sustainable rural areas development. One of the key research issues concerned with rural areas development is territorial orientation in programming of the Structural Funds in the next financial perspective 2014-2020. Integrated rural development requires different instruments of development in order to stimulate non-agricultural economic, social and cultural activity of rural residents.