Economic evaluation of rape production on the member farms of the cooperative LATRAPS
2011
Dobele, A., Latvia Univ. of Agriculture, Jelgava (Latvia). Faculty of Economics | Pilvere, I., Latvia Univ. of Agriculture, Jelgava (Latvia). Faculty of Economics | Ruza, L., Latvia Univ. of Agriculture, Jelgava (Latvia). Faculty of Economics | Grigorjeva, R., Latvia Univ. of Agriculture, Jelgava (Latvia). Faculty of Economics
There were three periods of producing rape in Latvia: the first period was in the 1980s when this crop was not widely used in processing, the second one was from 1999 to 2003 when the importance of rape for farms was understood, and the third one has begun in 2004 when Latvia joined the European Union (EU), and the area sown with rape significantly increased. The proportion of area sown with rape in Latvia, compared with other EU Member States, is low – only 1.3% in 2008. In 2008, the average yield in Latvia was lower than in the EU on average, i.e. 2.40 t haE-1; while it was 3.05 t ha-1 in the European Union. A part of Latvian rape producers have joined the cooperative of agricultural services LATRAPS who's number of members has increased 48 times and its net turnover rose 357 times over 10 years. Since 2008, the cooperative LATRAPS organises a competition called – ''Zelta rapsis'' (Golden Rape) to determine the possibilities of farms to grow rape as much efficiently as possible. The average yield in the group of analysed member farms of the cooperative LATRAPS significantly exceeds the average indicators in the country and the EU, reaching 4.28 t haE-1 in 2008. The data on the analysed farms show that the highest proportion of variable costs in rape production consists of expenditures on fertilisers and plant protection. By applying statistical analysis methods, it was proved in the present research that the amount of variable costs does not significantly influence yields, since there is a weak correlation between the yield and the items of variable costs. Therefore, the high yield is affected by membership in the cooperative.
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