Brown rust caused by Puccinia recondita is a significant disease in cereal growing areas worldwide. On average, brown rust can cause yield losses from 10% to 40% resulting in economic losses. The disease damages the leaves, stems and glumes of cereals. Classification of the pathogen causing brown rust has undergone several revisions. There are two different opinions about the causal agent causing brown rust on rye and wheat. Some scientists consider that the causal agent of brown rust in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and rye (Secale cereale) is included in the broad species of P. recondita defined by Cummins, but other scientists consider that there are two species causing brown rust – P. recondita in rye and P. triticina in wheat. There are many studies about the races of P. recondita in wheat: in North America, 70 races are collected every year; in Canada, 35 races have been found; in Europe, 105 races have been found. Unfortunately, there are no studies about the races of the pathogen of rye. P. recondita is a heteroecious fungus with a complicated life cycle. For successful development, the fungus requires cereals as primary hosts and different alternative hosts, depending on the specialization of the pathogen. Specific studies about the biology, distribution and harmfulness of Puccinia recondita in Latvia are necessary. Monographic method was used for this study. The aim of this article is to summarize the information from the literature about Puccinia recondita, the causal agent of brown rust, with emphasis on the occurrence, harmfulness, taxonomy, and life cycle of P. recondita f. sp. secalis.

The concepts of bioeconomy development require the integration of different sectors and economic activities. Bioeconomy helps to achieve the goals of sustainable development. This paper provides an overview of the cooperation for the need of bioeconomy development, examining it from agricultural cooperatives development, theoretical concept and European countries policy and Kazakhstan perspective. The research methods are induction and deduction, monographic, the group interview, statistical data analysis and synthesis, descriptive, matching and comparison and other methods. The cooperation passes through several levels of development – information, consultation, joint action, collective decision-making. The cooperation within farmers (horizontal cooperation) is so far narrow and limited to traditional cooperatives that bring together producers of the same product. New forms of cooperation and more diverse directions in national, regional and local levels are needed to develop the bioeconomy. Partnerships, the interdepartmental and interdisciplinary cooperation based on knowledge and innovation should be established between farmers, agri-food companies and scientific institutions, Kazakhstan and other countries universities. The agricultural and rural development advisory system should be improved, and new measures to promote communication, counselling and cooperation should be introduced.

Catch crops contribute to soil and environmental quality, which has determined a growing interest in their use as a nature-based solution. Though, the introduction of catch crops increases the complexity of farm management and is related with additional costs. In Latvia, the area under catch crops accounts for less than 5% of the arable land, while 30% is bare over the winter. In order to identify the possibilities for promoting of catch crops in Latvia, the objective of the study is to explore the support practices for growing of catch crops in the Baltic Sea region countries. The paper seeks to explore the main benefits associated with the growing of catch crops, followed by the study and synthesis of the main support measures. For the study, numerous information sources have been explored and appropriate research methods applied. Catch crops reduce nutrient leaching from the soil, transfer nutrients to the next crop, improve soil quality, reduce soil erosion, and mitigate climate change; these benefits can translate also at farm level, mainly as reduced N inputs. Growing of catch crops is being increasingly supported in the Baltic Sea countries – as a greening measure and by different agri-environment and climate measures of the RDPs 2014−2020. Growing of economic focus area catch crops (supported in quite a similar approach in these countries) and introduction of agri-environment scheme for catch crops (supported in directly and/or indirectly targeted way) can contribute to the solving of environmental problems and decrease the share of bare land left over the winter in Latvia.

West Pomeranian University of Technology Szczecin, Poland Business managers report the need for modern methods to improve the implementation of organizational strategies. Translating the strategy into activities and monitoring its implementation poses a serious challenge for the management of modern enterprises. The article aims to present proposals for multidimensional performance measurement with the help of Balanced Scorecard (BSC) for selected Polish listed companies in the confectionery industry. The authors’ original solution within the framework of the BSC construction is extending the range of perspectives for assessing performance compared to the card proposed by Kaplan and Norton by the perspective of suppliers and CSR, and the appropriate selection of measures for this assessment. The article is based on literature studies and analysis of information included in business strategies, financial statements and reports on the operations of selected confectionery companies. Research on the use of multidimensional performance measurement using BSC, taking into account the additional perspectives of suppliers and CSR, help to better understand the relationship between economic, social, and environmental aspects of a company’s operations.

Purpose of the paper is to assess contribution of the European Fishery Fund (EFF) and European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) in the development of coastal areas. The article reviews particulars of implementation of the Fishery Funds in various planning periods, in more detail analysing the implementation impact in the period of 2014−2020, based on analysis of the needs, goals and projects of the current period. Even though the European Fishery Fund (EFF) in Latvia is being implemented since 2007, there is a lack of scientific publications on its impact on the coastal development. EMFF for the period 2013−2020 has a dual role in the development of coastal areas – as a development tool of the fishery sector and as a development tool of communities in the fishery areas. It is implemented by using communityled local development (CLLD/LEADER) approach. In case of Latvia, a multi-fund approach – EFF/EMFF and European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) is already being used for two planning periods. We conclude that the impact of EFF/EMFF on the development of coastal areas is more directed at development of infrastructure of the coastal communities but is less engaged in the fishery development matters - accordingly increasing other activities and preserving historic and cultural heritage for development of tourism and place of residence in the coastal area in interaction and in addition to EAFRD rural development measures of the coastal areas.

This paper summarizes the results of a theoretical study as well as practically oriented research about the concept of managing the social sphere of the village and considers the problem-perspective field of development the social infrastructure management in the villages of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The chosen topic is relevant as an insufficiently studied scientific problem, and also has practical significance for the well-being and stable development of rural areas. The study describes the scheme of management of the rural social infrastructure in the Republic of Kazakhstan from the standpoint of object-subject, methods and results. Interviews of the rural population were conducted about the satisfaction with the rural social infrastructure and attitude towards the work of local governance. Rural settlements of Mangystau oblast currently have an average not significant level of social infrastructure development and the level of satisfaction of residents in different areas with its condition varies from very low to sufficient. The most important principles for the development of definition of rural social infrastructure management and its functions have been highlighted with the help of a comparative analysis of various approaches. According to the results of the study, it was concluded that the development of promising directions of management the rural social infrastructure requires a comprehensive study and evaluation of the facilities, mechanism and principles of this management and the identification of its current problems with regional development tasks.

The economic situation of Lithuanian agricultural sector faces with challenges in regards to family farms’ income instability and income discrepancies between family farms. The aim of this paper is to assess the economic sustainability of Lithuanian sector at farm level across farm size classes in terms of physical size and by specialization. Furthermore, as the sustainability construction index method was employed as basis to conduct the research, the methodology aspects related to the number of indicators included in the set of indicators and the estimation of thresholds of sustainability intervals were empirically analysed. The findings of economic sub-index assessment indicates very good level of Lithuanian family farms as 68% of the sample farms were defined by medium level of economic sustainability. The assessment of family farms’ economic sustainability by specialization revealed that the horticulture farms performed the highest economic sustainability and, at the other end of spectrum, the COP farms achieved the lowest economic sustainability. As regards the physical size of farms, the best economic sustainability was observed on the smallest farms in terms of size and on the largest farms, of less than 5 ha and from 500 ha or over, respectively.

Urban-rural income convergence provides an opportunity to reduce the income inequality, ensuring cohesion and increasing economic output. The results show that urban-rural income convergence is a continuous tendency in the EU; the urban-urban income gap declines – rural population received 79% of net income of population living in cities in 2017 (in 2010 it was 69%). The rural population accounts for 27.3% of the EU and any changes have notable impact on the rest of the economy. Nationally the urban-rural income convergence dramatically differs amid the EU countries. In order to model an impact of urban-rural income convergence, a comparative-static approach that involves an input-output model is applied. Two scenarios are estimated for Latvia’s economy: rural net income in Latvia is assumed to be 89% of cities net income (as in the Euro Area average) in both scenarios, in the first one the saving rate is constant; in the second rural households anticipate the additional net income as a gift (saving rate for extra net income is equal to zero). The results of the first scenario argue that households final demand expenditures increase by 4.5%, output by 2.7%. The largest increase of output is modelled in chemical products (8.9%), paper products (8.7%), electrical equipment (6.2%), pharmaceutical products (6.1%), and textile (5.8%) industries. In the second scenario, the output increase: 3%. The results certify that the increase and convergence of income in rural areas are important even in advanced economies, such as the EU countries. The national and EU policies are welcome and can give notable impact on economic growth.

The authors explore ways to combine the use of traditional and mobile positioning data (as Big Data) in assessing the economic impact (EI) of tourism in specific regional areas in line with the opportunities of the digital age. In order to provide an automated evaluation of the tourism EI, a study is being carried out resulting in technical development of a prototype for two interconnected digital applications – ‘Data Bank’ and ‘Data Analysis’ – as a unified solution for research in the e-environment. The study is based on the research work started in 2017 that resulted in the development of a theoretical strategic model for the construction of the prototype. Continuing the research, the aim of this publication is to develop a theoretical tactical (technological action) model needed for the practical development of the prototype, incl. for the identification of prerequisites to develop the Software Design Description (SDD) of the prototype. To this end, the technological capabilities and their collaborative effects have been investigated in line with the requirements included in the prototype Software Requirements Specification (SRS). Performing the qualitative research, the tactical model has been developed, which designates the practical construction of the prototype. It consists of a combination and joint operation of 4 platforms (servers) – Apache Ambari, Apache Hadoop Ecosystem, Drupal and Jupyter Notebook. The strengths of the model, the risky features as well as the future perspectives for the practical implementation of the goal have been discovered during the research.

It is neccessary for the Regional Universities (RU) to strengthen their regional role. The reason behind such trend is the increased economic and regional differences between regions which applies also to Latvia. The aim of this research is to define the contribution of the RU to the regional development. The research included analysis of scientific sources, correlation and analysis of variance. It was determined that there is a positive correlation 0.979 between the number of students of RU and corresponding regional Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita; thus the RU have a positive impact on the regional development while other drawbacks and problems exist.