The Czechlands. A Bibliography. A Selected Bibliography of References in English (original) (raw)
Transformation of agriculture in Czechia in the period 1990‑2020
Studia Obszarów Wiejskich, 2020
This paper characterises the development of Czech agriculture in the 30 years since the change of political regime. It notes that, although ownership has changed, the structure of large farms has been maintained. There has been a reduction in livestock production in particular, which has disrupted the traditional relationship between the two principal agricultural activities. The number of workers in the primary sector has fallen very rapidly, to less than 6% now, even in rural areas. Therefore, the communities in the Czech countryside are no longer dependent on agriculture, whose role is increasingly shifting to landscape maintenance and non-productive activities. At present, subsidies under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy are the main driver in Czech agriculture. In the face of current challenges, attention needs to be paid to the environmental function of agriculture, while the impact of agricultural jobs on rural development is negligible.
Current use of former communist agricultural properties in South Bohemia
XXII. mezinárodní kolokvium o regionálních vědách, Velké Bílovice, 12.–14. června 2019, 2019
Publikace neprošla jazykovou úpravou. / Publication is not a subject of language check. Za správnost obsahu a originalitu výzkumu zodpovídají autoři. / Authors are fully responsible for the content and originality of the articles.
The Common Agricultural Policy In A Czech Context
2015
The largest share of policy and money within the European Union goes to agriculture. The Union's Common Agricultural Policy has undergone several transformations in the last five decades, with the main change taking place in the 1990s. This change influenced agriculture in the Czech Republic, inasmuch as the fledgling republic was preparing to join the European Union and adopt its policies. In the 1990s, Czech agriculture passed from a centrally planned economy to a market economy and subsequently adopted the terms of the Common Agricultural Policy. The Czech Republic is also characterized by a significant diversification of landscape sphere. Agricultural entrepreneurs in the Czech Republic are still not accustomed to the possibility of grants from the European Union. They focus rather on national or regional subsidies. Only half of all agricultural entrepreneurs in the Czech Republic use European subsidies. This article focuses on the introduction of the Common Agricultural Pol...
AGRICULTURE OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC IN THE 21ST CENTURY: FROM PRODUCTIVISM TO POST-PRODUCTIVISM
Czech Agriculture went during last two decades through significant changes – the first one was transition of agriculture in 90s which brought new conditions and rules for agrarian sector. The second one was entrance of the Czech Republic into the EU and commitment of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Both of these changes contributed to structural change and regional differentiation of the Czech agriculture, both changes exposed Czech agriculture to competition of whole Europe. Furthermore the CAP exposed Czech agriculture to uneven condition for farmers within the EU. The most significant results of these changes are decrease of the agricultural sector output, reduction of bred farm animals and diminish of the arable land. On the other side many non-productive and non-agricultural activities in the rural areas are subsidized which bring to farmers new possibilities of development. Aim of the paper is to analyse structural and spatial change of Czech agriculture between 2000 and 2010 on base of the Agrocensus data supplemented by opinions of the farmers which were gained by series of interviews in Czech regions.
Agroforestry in the Czech Republic: What Hampers the Comeback of a Once Traditional Land Use System?
Agronomy
The interest in re-implementing agroforestry (AF) in European agriculture due to its environmental benefits has been growing exponentially. We reviewed the historical background and the current state (extent, farmers’ perception, legislative support, and barriers) to evaluate the future perspectives of AF in Czechia by identifying the key factors hampering further extension. Our results confirmed that AF almost disappeared after the middle of the 19th century due to agricultural intensification and collectivization. Currently, AF is not defined in the Czech legislation and no modern AF has been encountered by this study. Areas falling into AF definition recently comprise only traditional AF (less than 1% of agricultural area remaining) represented only by silvopastoral AF. The results of a farmers’ survey indicated that despite relatively high interest in AF, excessive bureaucratization, high costs of establishment and uncertain profitability are severe concerns among farmers. We th...
Social Farming in Czechia, Actors and Barriers
European Countryside, 2022
The article deals with the state of social farming in Czechia, which is obviously in its infancy. The main barriers to development are the character of Czech agriculture, which is radically based on large-scale production and deliveries to large customers, insufficient cooperation of individual ministries and too narrow conception of the problem as care farming. At the same time, we can expect increasing demand for this type of management in the future. Some ideas for improving the situation are presented, the most important of which is the recognition of social farming by the public administration and the creation of a legal framework for its development.
The past, present and future of diversification of agricultural holdings in Czechia
AUC GEOGRAPHICA
The article deals with diversification of the activities of agricultural holdings in Czechia. The purpose of diversification is to create and also keep new jobs in the rural areas, keep or even increase the farm income and to contribute to the recovery of the villages. It may lead to stabilization of the rural population, increase the quality of their lives and the competitiveness of agricultural holdings. The main aim of the article is to describe the extent and importance of diversification in the specific environment of Czechia before and after 1989 and also to outline its likely future development. The article offers analysis of the development of non-agricultural activities before 1989 in the conditions of the centrally planned economy. Then it deals with diversification of activities of agricultural holdings after 1989-during the period of transition of the Czech agriculture, which led to the application of the market economy. The article also outlines the possible future development of diversification of activities of agricultural holdings in Czechia.
Agriculture in the Czech Republic has experienced dramatic structural changes in the last two decades. The main paradigm of agriculture has been also gradually reshaped. In the context of the Common Agricultural Policy food production as the main driving force of agriculture is being gradually replaced by post-productionist approach to agriculture. A demonstration of the above mentioned shift includes non-agricultural activities of farmers, growing of energy crops or processing of agricultural production into energies (biogas stations). Nowadays the direction of agriculture should be generally linked more to the requirements for sustainable rural development. The aim of this contribution is to follow how this change is reflected in changes of agricultural labour force before and after EU accession. Population in the Czech Republic engaged in agriculture was analysed on the basis of two agricultural censuses (Agrocensus 2000 and 2010) and basic attention was paid to the regional spec...
Agricultural Reform in Slovakia: Changing Institutions and Structure
2001
Historically, a dual farming structure was typical in Slovakia, by which there were a large number of small peasant farms and at the same time a significant portion of land was held by huge estates – latifundia. Land reforms, which started after WW I, did not significantly change this pattern, nevertheless they managed to reduce the size of large holdings and to upgrade peasant holdings. In 1895, close to 50 per cent of the total land was occupied by holdings larger than 100 hectares (52 per cent of the total number of holdings were peasant farms smaller than 2.9 ha, altogether occupying only 5.8 per cent of the total land). After the first land reform, the share of holdings over 100 hectares diminished to 23.5 per cent of total land.
Decollectivisation of Agriculture and Reshaping of Agrarian Structure in Central Europe
2010
This article is about the decollectivisation of agriculture which took place in Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia and Poland in the first half of the nineteen-nineties as well as about changes in the agrarian structure which were to be observed during the next decade. We argue that significant structural transformations have affected the agricultural domain and altered the way it is used for production. As a result of the transfer of property rights, agricultural land and part of the forests have changed hands. The process of decentralisation of the methods of farming the land which has affected the area of agricultural production is occurring with varying intensity depending on the country and the region. Re-established as the result of decollectivisation, private ownership of the land has been dispersed among a large number of landowners, sometimes without any direct link with agriculture and the rural milieu. More than a decade after the privatisation of the land, the land market is slow to re-establish itself and to play its role fully. Furthermore, farming structures have not become more stable. In a certain number of cases, capital restructuring is taking place within enterprises that have taken over from the former collective farms. Weakened by the impact of greater competition, the less efficient farms have been gradually eliminated. The decrease in the size of the workforce needed for agricultural land continues. The restructuring of the agricultural sector remains incomplete. Far from being fixed, the picture we have 0 MARIA HALAMSKA, MARIE-CLAUDE MAUREL painted should be regarded as a snapshot rather than as the culmination of the transformation that has been launched.
Challenges of Urban Agriculture: Highlights on the Czech and Slovak Republic Specifics
Current challenges of Central Europe: society and environment, 2014
DUŽÍ, Barbora - TÓTH, Attila - BIHUŇOVÁ, Mária - STOJANOV, Robert. 2014. Challenges of Urban Agriculture: Highlights on the Czech and Slovak Republic Specifics. In VÁVRA, Jan - LAPKA, Miloslav - CUDLÍNOVÁ, Eva (eds.) Current challenges of Central Europe: society and environment. Praha : Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Filozofická fakulta, pp. 82-107. 194 p. ISBN 978-80-7308-551-3.
Journal of Central European Agriculture, 2012
Czech Republic entered into the EU in 2004 and had to adopt conditions of the Common Agricultural Policy of the EU. Impacts of the Common Agricultural Policy on Czech agriculture are numerous -both positive and negative. Positive impacts are evident mainly in growth of financial sources for farmers (however, not still as high as in old member countries) but this is connected also with more requirements on administrative. The most striking impact of the Common Agricultural Policy is fall of the livestock production. The aim of the paper is confirmation of these and also other theses on base of results of questionnaire survey among agricultural subjects in model region. Above mentioned situation sets farmers into complicated situationthey have to find new alternative way of farming and development for their survival.
The Development of the Slovak Agricultural Landscape in a Changing World
Frontiers in sustainable food systems, 2022
The agricultural landscape, which serves as a space for food production and a habitat for all kinds of living organisms, is under constant pressure to use the land in various different ways, causing constant changes in the environment. Various socioeconomic , technical or political drivers have caused land use changes, which are linked to a number of socioeconomic and environmental problems, e.g., different possible land uses competing with each other, changes of landscape character, increasing anthropisation of the territory and disruption of spatial ecological stability, threatening the environmental quality and causing overexploitation of natural resources. The aim of this paper is to evaluate land use changes in Slovakia since the 18th century, to identify key periods of land-management practices and prevailing drivers, and to specify the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of land-use change. We organized a workshop with guided brainstorming to identify individual eras of agricultural development and their impacts. In total, we identified five main periods of agricultural landscape development and specified the characteristic landscape structure. Knowledge of the basic drivers of land use change as well as of its effects on the land is important for development of effective policies and for ensuring effective protection of the values of traditional agricultural landscape.
Structural changes in agriculture since EU accession in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary
The collaboration that has led to the publication of this book can be traced back to April 2013, when the Research Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics (VÚEPP) in Bratislava, Slovak Republic, approached the Research Institute of Agricultural Economics (AKI) in Budapest, Hungary, with a view to establishing a programme of bilateral cooperation. The approach was very positively received by AKI, and the idea rapidly developed into a plan for a series of trilateral cooperation activities that also included the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Information (IAEI) in Praha, Czech Republic. Representatives of the three institutes met in Budapest at the end of May, 2013 and agreed to work together to enhance mutual research collaboration in the field of agricultural economics, share information and discuss issues related to agricultural economics in the three countries, and establish a coordination group composed by members of the three research institutes. The cooperation was formalised through the signing, in December 2013, of a trilateral Agreement covering the period 2014-2016 covering the following topics: (a) publication of individual or common papers in the institutes' journals or other journals, and exchange of journals between institutes; (b) exchange of experience via trilateral meetings of specialists; (c) cooperation with other scientific entities and support for affiliation to international networks or construction of a specific network in the institutes' common field of research interest; (d) applications and participation in common international projects; and (e) participation at international meetings with common research/papers and cooperation in organisation of different international meetings. The three institutes agreed that this would be an excellent way to better disseminate, nationally and internationally, the results of their research work and to open new perspectives to future mutual cooperation. The centrepiece of the programme of cooperation was a trilateral research project entitled "The CAP Impact on the Effectiveness of Use of Agricultural Production Factors and the Economic Efficiency of Agricultural Production and Product Sectors in the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic and Hungary". The general objective of this project has been: research on rural areas and the agrifood sector by sectoral analysis, country comparisons, identification of positive and negative influences on the rural and agricultural economy, dissemination of research results, and proposals for future policies in the field. Initially intended to cover four topics (implementation of the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), agricultural land ownership and related issues, competitiveness and profitability of crop and animal production, and the efficiency of food industry production), further discussion led to eight topics of joint research being agreed. This book represents the tangible output of the trilateral research project. Each chapter in the book is the product of enthusiastic cooperation between the relevant research specialists of the three institutes, under the overall coordination and guidance of Ing. Tatiana Čičová, PhD of VUEPP, Petr Bartoň of IAEI, and especially Dr. Biró Szabolcs of AKI, who willingly took on the role of Editorin-Chief. Special thanks are also due to Dr. Potori Norbert, Research Director at AKI, for agreeing that AKI would oversee the publication of the volume, and Vrana Attila of AKI's Publications Group, for the excellent formatting. Thanks are also due to Dr. Eleonóra Marišová and Dr. Nábrádi András, who acted as external reviewers. This is the first joint publication between the three institutes and it unquestionably provides instructive and useful knowledge for researchers, stakeholders in the agrofood sector and agricultural policy decision makers. We hope that it will be followed by similar volumes in the coming years.
Changing agriculture in Eastern Europe: Hungary as an example
Beginning in 1989 dramatic political changes in Central and Eastern Europe took place - communism gave way to democracy. This paper attempts to give the reader a brief overview of how these changes affected agriculture in one of the above coutries, Hungary (population 10 million, gross national product ca 3000 USD per capita).
Social metabolism of Czech agriculture in the period 1830–2010
AUC GEOGRAPHICA, 2015
This article presents the concept of social metabolism and highlights its use for the analysis of the development of agriculture in Czechia. Similar to the general discipline of geography, social metabolism investigates the interactions between people and nature throughout time and space. In this article, we apply social metabolism methods, such as energy flow analysis (EFA), to investigate the transformation of Czech agriculture during the 1830-2010 period. The article is based on public data, as well as datasets compiled by the authors. The article documents the changes in Czechia's historical development and its effect on land use and agriculture through the observation of several metabolic key indicators within their historical context. It primarily concentrates on changes in crop and livestock production, land use, and associated demographic and societal developments. We conclude that the strategies of all political regimes in the 19th and most of the 20th century increased the socio-metabolic output of agriculture, despite a very different political and economic background. Only the collapse of the Eastern Block resulted in a restructuring of the agricultural sector that produced a visible change in agricultural energy flows trends.