Yellow rust caused by Puccinia striiformis is a significant wheat disease in cereal growing areas worldwide. On average, yellow rust can cause 50% big yield damages resulting in economic losses. Yellow rust damages wheat leaves, leaf sheaths, awns, and glumes. Puccinia striiformis is divided into four lineages – P. striiformis sensu stricto, P. pseudostriiformis, P. striiformoides, P. gansensis. Different races of yellow rust have been determined. After 2000 three new aggressive races – ‘Warrior’, ‘Kranich’ and ‘Triticale aggressive’ have been identified. New races are characterized by shorter latent period, extended spore germination and tolerance to a high temperature in comparison with the races determined before 2000. These characteristics allowed the new races to replace races dominant before 2000. Yellow rust is a biotrophic heteroecious fungus with a complicated life cycle. For successful development, Puccinia striiformis requires cereals as primary hosts and Berberis spp. as alternate hosts. The history of studies regarding yellow rust is more than two hundred years old but only in 2010 the ecidiospores of yellow rust were found on the alternate host Berberis spp. Two types of resistance – seedling (or all-stage) resistance and adult plant resistance (APR) were discovered. Since 2000 multiple severe epidemics of yellow rust have been observed in cereal growing areas with warmer climate. In recent years, the incidence of yellow rust in Latvia has increased. Particular studies about the biology, distribution, and races of Puccinia striiformis in Latvia are necessary. This article summarizes the information about the classification, biology and harmfulness of the yellow rust.

Japanese quince (Chaenomeles japonica) is cultivated as a fruit crop because its fruit possesses valuable properties. The total area of Japanese quince in Latvia is continuously increasing; therefore, fruit rot can become an important reason of yield loss. The aim of this study was to clarify the fruit rot incidence in Japanese quince plantations in Latvia and explore the influencing factors of rot development in the year 2017. The evaluation of fruit rot was carried out during the fruit development in eight places of different regions of Latvia where Japanese quince is grown commercially. Three plantations of different Japanese quince cultivars in Dobele and seven plantations where Japanese quince is grown from seedlings were observed. Fruit rot incidence among plantations had no significant differences. Statistically significant differences in fruit rot incidence depending on quince growth stage (p is less than 0.05) were found. Significant differences in fruit rot incidence were found between cultivars in Dobele.

Rangifer tarandus (reindeer) – is actively bred in the northern regions of different countries. Therefore, an urgent task is to deepen information about the features of reindeer adaptations. Rumen symbiotic microorganisms play an important role in the life of Rangifer tarandus, allowing animals to efficiently use scarce nutrient resources of the tundra and forest-tundra. The microbial community of the reindeer rumen, as well as its age-related changes, are the least studied compared to other ruminants. The comparative analysis results of rumen bacterial community composition of calf (4 months), young animals (1–2 years) and adults (3–6 years) Rangifer tarandus of the Russian Arctic are presented for the first time. The reindeer ruminal bacterial community composition was analyzed in the laboratory of the ‘BIOTROF+’ Ltd by T-RFLP method. In the ontogenesis, significant changes in the microorganism representation were noticed, the greatest of which was noted in microorganism involved in carbohydrate fermentation. The content of cellulolytic Clostridia and the acid-utilizing species of the Negativicutes (P is less than 0.05) decreased with age, but bacteria with the amylo- and cellulosolytic properties of the phylum Bacteroidetes increased (P is less than 0.05). A wide range of microorganisms which traditionally belong to the pathogens of various animals and humans diseases was revealed. With age, a tendency to increase the number of pathogens, including the bacteria of the families Campylobacteraceae, Burkholderiaceae, phylum Fusobacteria, and the genus Staphylococcus was noticed. The greatest percent of opportunistic microorganisms, including phylum Actinobacteria and the family Enterobacteriaceae, were detected in young animals.

The development of rural territories in the European Union (EU) plays an essential role, and agricultural development can largely contribute to this process. To project agricultural trends, a number of models have been developed in the EU, while in Latvia the LASAM model was developed in 2016 to generate projections for agricultural sector development in Latvia until 2050. In 2017, LASAM was extended by a module for socio-economic assessment that allows projecting productivity for various types of farming. The research aim is to develop a model for productivity simulation for various specialisation types of farms in order to project their development in Latvia. To achieve the aim, two specific research tasks were set: 1) to develop a model for productivity simulation for various specialisation types of farms in Latvia; 2) to identify the key results of the simulation of productivity for various specialisation types of farms in Latvia. The research found that in the period 2005 – 2016 the value added of agriculture tended to slightly increase in Latvia, whereas an opposite trend was observed for the number of persons employed in agriculture, which tended to decrease in the period of analysis. Both trends determine the agricultural productivity trend as well. A projection of productivity measured as value added per AWU for various farming types in Latvia by means of the LASAM model has revealed that it is different, and the highest level of productivity in 2030 and 2050 is projected for granivores as well as field crop farms.

The objective of this article is to assess farm efficiency and productivity change in specialised large farms located in the region of Mazowsze and Podlasie during the years 2014 − 2016. For this, we used the non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method and Malmquist index. Calculations were performed for three types of large farms classified as: field crop, pig and dairy. The study shows that mean technical efficiency of large field crop, pig and dairy farms amounted to 80, 75 and 70%, respectively. Technical inefficiency of field crop farms come mainly from scale efficiency, while of pig and dairy farms equally from pure technical and scale efficiency. It shows that inefficient management practices had an impact on farm performance. Therefore, in order to increase competitiveness of farms, an improvement of management practices is required. In the studied period the share of farms operating under increasing return was as follows: 67, 72, and 81%, respectively for field crops, pig and dairy farms. The improvement of efficiency of those farms could be achieved by increasing their size. The results indicate that 8% of field crops, 12% of dairy and 16% of large pig farms were operating under decreasing scale efficiency, which means that those farms were operating above the optimal scale. The increase in their efficiency could be achieved through size reduction. In dairy farms the average annual productivity growth of 2% was recorded. In pig farms the productivity reduction of 5.4% was observed. It was the result of a decrease in technological efficiency.

The changing economic and social situation in the regions leads to the changing understanding of the potential which exists in the countryside. This research is based on the idea that farmers operate in close neighbourhood with the local communities and therefore they may hold a potential to start innovation processes in rural regions as agents of change. This may happen individually or together with the local community. Farmers are active in acquiring new knowledge and experience through collaboration with advanced innovation centres in research laboratories and universities, and sharing with the local community, thus making these innovations open. The success of innovators comes in line with the collaboration and therefore the defined three key factors of ‘innovating together’ in this research are: first, the shift from technical to organizational innovations; second, the shift from sectorial to territorial rural development strategies; third, the size of farms and rural enterprises due to the limited number of employees. Theoretical findings are followed by empirical investigations from representative data collected in Lithuanian farms in 2017, supported with relevant statistical analysis. Research results show that the potential for ‘innovating together’ in Lithuanian farms is rather weak when taking into account all three factors. However, there are reasons behind this which give insights for future developments in the field.

Historical and current development tendencies of medical tourism in Latvia, economic and geographical accessibility of Latvia for medical tourists, the high acknowledgement by the European Parliament Committee on Transport and Tourism on the potential of Latvia of becoming one of the largest medical tourism destination points, allow us to evaluate the potential for medical tourism among the priority countries for Latvia. Unfortunately, the lack of further analysis of potential limits the development of medical tourism strategy and monitoring. The research goal: determination of export potential of medical tourism services in the priority countries for Latvia. The research showed that there is a potential in every of the given countries: in Norway – rehabilitation and insert of acrylic implants; in Sweden – endovenous laser surgery and eyelid surgery; in Finland – rehabilitation and breast enlargement; in Ireland – rehabilitation and eyelid surgery; in Great Britain – rehabilitation and eyelid surgery. Results of the SWOT analysis indicated that in order to reach the export goals the existing drawbacks to the provision of medical tourism services in Latvia have to be averted while amplifying the use of the comparative advantages of Latvia.

The model of automation and extension of tourism economic impact assessment in specific regions Tourism is measured by the statistics of visitor movements, expenditure and estimates of the number of visitor facilities. In the world there are many current tools, methodologies and innovative technologies used to measure the economic impact of tourism. Tourism statistics have been on the frontline of Big Data-related innovations of statistical sources and methods. Data from mobile phones (as part of Big Data set) are increasingly used as new indices for social science research. Therefore, this paper looks for an answer to the question – what is the specific of a theoretical model for automation tourism economic impact assessment in specific regions via the use of ICT and mobile positioning data (MPD)? Using qualitative research methods authors propose theoretical model based on two interlinked parts. First of which – ‘Data storage’ – can be built upon the most popular BD platform ‘Apache Hadoop Ecosystem’, where the data precision of the online surveys can be increased by implementing mobile positioning solutions. Meanwhile the other part – ‘Data analysis’ – can be based on the locally created assessment methodology, which has been derived from the Finnish standardized economic impact estimation approach. The research results show the findings and propose a theoretical model. Its strength and novelty lies in the ability to use traditional tourism statistics, the economic impact analysis and passive mobile positioning data for spatial characteristics of tourism flow. Its construction is a distinctive combination of typically used technological approaches.

In the fish processing sector, the further exploitation of by-products and wastes left after industrial production promotes sustainability of raw materials, access to added value and increased profitability, as well as contributes to environmental protection by reducing the volume of dumped products. Besides obvious value-added features, it also addresses the clear market demand dictated by prospects of the population growth. Given the limitations for further expansion of the husbandry sector, fish-based items available for human consumption represent a major avenue for coping with the pressing demands of increased population and enable the development of innovative food items of high nutritional importance. Current research is focused on the analysis of fish processing by-product utilization possibilities available up to date and introduces empirical findings of innovative food product development made on the basis of by-products left after traditional canned “Sprats in oil” production. In Latvia, “Sprats in oil” production is an integral part of fish processing sector and the rural economy overall. The production accounts for at least 30% of raw material left as by-products (smoked heads and, in some cases, tails) after such technological stage as smoked sprats processing into cans. Efforts were made to prepare value-added and attractive to customer food product made out of this fish-processing by-products, which are typically processed to a fishmeal or just dumped as waste. The study demonstrates a strong potential for its utilization to a range of fish pâté with various flavours and of high nutritious value.

Considering tourism as a driving force in the growth of rural economy, the research in this industry is gaining its popularity. In the era of the Internet, no business is imaginable without having its own website. However, implementing a website does not already mean that customers will like and approve it. Website quality is a necessary task to maintain in line with its functioning. The aim of the research is to assess the quality of the Lithuanian rural tourism homestead websites. Only understanding the website-related factors that are important for consumers may lead to a proper management of a website and customer attraction as well. The research results show that the information on the websites has to be easy findable, clear, and consistent; photos that substantiate the information are necessary; the information and photos have to be managed properly; and the eWOM part has to be included on the website. Proper management of latter factors can enhance the possibility of maintaining a high quality website that encourages consumer intention to visit the homestead.