Statistical analysis of farm economy in the Czech Less Favoured Areas

MAKINA RAHMAN

Master's thesis

Abstract:

Farm performance in agriculture is a complicated concept and there are varieties of viewpoints among scholars about performance indicators. However, various dimensions for measuring agricultural performance have been proposed. This paper reviews some aspects of agricultural evaluation by referring to social, economic, ecological aspects and their interaction. The purpose of this paper is to (i) make an objective assessment of the agricultural farm performance based on some chosen economic and related indicators, (ii) evaluate the performance for Czech Less Favored Areas (LFA) in comparison with selected EU member states over five-year (2009 to 2013) period, (iii) impact of LFA policy changes on selected economic indicators; with the help of statistical analysis. Agriculture in Europe has seen a dynamic development over the years and a further significant growth is foreseen. Economic aspect is widely seen as an important factor determining the performance of agricultural farming. This aspect should be kept in mind when evaluating the economic data of agricultural farms. Consecutive reformation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), time to time variations in Rural Development Programs and LFA policy have enlarged the diversity of European agriculture. These changes have resulted in the escalation of agricultural activities in some regions, followed by the impact of financial support for farming in less favored areas in most countries influences the increased importance of agricultural performance. The comparability of farm performance among countries is a bit difficult analysis, due to the differences in overall facilities and economic power of the countries. Therefore, an evaluation of selected economic indicators with appropriate unit of measure has been carried out using suitable statistical methods, such as Descriptive Statistics, Cluster Analysis; to realize the performance differences in less favored area types.

Keywords

Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), Agricultural Farm Performance, Statistical Analysis, Less favoured areas (LFA)

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 30. 3. 2017

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: Ing. Tomáš Hlavsa, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Economics and Management

Master programme / field:
Systems Engineering and Informatics / Informatics