The study was conducted in Goma district of Jimma Zone of Ethiopia with the objectives of documenting the reasons why farmers in coffee dominant mixed-farming systems of western Ethiopia keep small ruminants, and identifying the constraints and opportunities for improvement of this sector. Results are based on diagnostic survey of 160 sample households, group discussions and personal observation. The study district was stratified into three groups based on flock distribution as: sheep dominating, goat dominating and mixed flock sites. The average land holding per household was 1.93 ha. In Goma where coffee and chat are the major cash sources for farmers, small ruminant are also primarily kept for cash generation as reported by 94% of the sampled households. The second main reason for keeping small ruminant in the study area was for saving mainly in time of coffee failure. Keeping small ruminants as a source of manure was the third important reason. From the interviewed households, 59.4, 32.1, 23.5, and 19.4% of them utilize communal grazing, aftermath grazing, roadside grazing, and riverside grazing, respectively for their animal as a sources of feed. Most small ruminants are either tethered or herded all the seasons due to the cultivation of perennial crops and predators. All small ruminants are housed for protection from adverse weather conditions and predators. The major problems for small ruminant production and marketing were: feed and grazing land shortage, lack of input, predators, diseases and parasites and marketing problems. In order to exploit the current growing demand of small ruminant meat at local and international markets, research and development interventions are required with regard to the identification of alternative feed resources and strategic feeding management, identification of causes of diseases and their control methods and improving marketing efficiency through appropriate policy.

Primary energy resource consumption in the world is surveyed in the work and oil yield, production and consumption evaluated on the world level, also showing its density in the view of several states. Oil reserves are evaluated and the states with biggest oil reserves stated. The research proves consumption of primary energy oil in the world is increasing continuously. There are primary energy resources to be acquired in Latvia evaluated and primary energy resources in means of final consumption divided between types of energy estimated.

The paper includes economic research results on the second stage of land reform over the 10-year period (1996–2006) in the districts of Latgale region. The results explicitly stress the region's variability, therefore, the results are different, but common trends can be also observed. The number of land users has decreased, whereas that of land owners and the area of privatised land have increased. The total area of used and owned land has increased by 33.4% and exceeded a million hectares.

The goal of the research was to evaluate the opportunities in preparation of logistics specialists offered by Latvian universities and to formulate problem solutions. To achieve the goal, study programmes and course syllabuses offered by Latvian universities and colleges were analysed from the logistics perspective. Opportunities to acquire logistics knowledge offered in Latvia by distance, in further education and life-long learning programmes were reviewed. In the end, it was concluded that the development of logistics education in Latvia does not correspond to the speed of the development of logistics industry. Currently Latvia offers 4 Logistics study programmes, but only one study programme offers education corresponding to the professional standard – Manager of Logistics Department – as approved by the MoES. Latvia University of Agriculture currently has no logistics study programmes but different logistics subjects are included in the study programmes of 4 Faculties, therefore there are vast opportunities and it is necessary to develop the offer of logistics education, first by giving students the opportunity to choose specialisation in logistics in the Faculties in the study areas of which logistics is especially important and necessary – Faculty of Economics, Technical Faculty, Faculty of Forestry, Faculty of Food Technology, and Faculty of Agriculture.

The article deals with the issue of the impact of teaching practice on training of the future educators. At the Institute of Education and Home Management of the Latvia University of Agriculture, approaches of human pedagogy and education lie at the basis of the conceptual grounds of the school practice. The phases of the school practice are characterized and the readiness obtained by the students within the training are discussed. In every phase of the school practice, students gradually adapt themselves to the school, pedagogic and educational environments. Results of student survey on the development of readiness to pedagogic work in school educational environment and the developing role of competency are presented.

This study was conducted to investigate the lifestyle of post-graduate students. The purpose of the present study was to find out opinion of the post-graduate students how significant are physical activities and healthy eating in their life. The study was initiated due to the growing knowledge of the importance of healthy food. The study was carried out by using empirical methods and the opinion of post-graduate students living in Latvia analysed. The authors have used questionnaire method and in February 2008 received answers from 86 respondents who are the post-graduate students of Latvia University of Agriculture (LLU). Studies showed that the biggest part of research subjects appreciates the importance of physical activities and healthy eating, and treats it as a positive part of the post-graduate studies process.

This paper discusses the usability of non-parametric knn (k-nearest neighbour) method to detect changes in forest areas from satellite images. Spot Xi images acquired 1999, main forest characteristics from field measured sample plots and data of conventional stand-wise forest inventory from the year 1988 were used to estimate the grids of following forest characteristics: mean age of main forest storey, diameter, basal area, height, volume per 1 ha, as well as the percentages of coniferous, soft and hard deciduous tree species. The differences of grids, created using stand-wise forest attributes from the 1988 inventory and estimated using the k-nearest neighbour methods were experimented to detect changes in the forest. 68.7-75.5% of areas, classified as the potential felling areas, were detected to be clear cut areas or young stands less than 15 years according to the data of stand-wise inventory of year 2003. Different settings for the methods investigated are evaluated, too.

Progeny testing of Scots pine in Latvia is carried out in only few locations, however, material from selections via seed orchards is deployed in various climatic and soil conditions, therefore concerns arise for influence of genotype environment interaction on levels of genetic gain. Problem is addressed based on 3 open pollinated progeny tests, consisting of 80 open pollinated families, located in 3 distant climatic regions in Latvia. Test age is 27 years, therefore not only growth, but also branch quality traits can be reliably analyzed. Strong genetic correlation (rb=0.80-0.94) among sites for tree height and diameter was found, but considerably weaker for branch traits like diameter of thickest branch (rb=0.52-0.67), average branch diameter, and sum of branch diameters (rb=0.41-0.49). Coefficients of additive genetic variation and coefficients of phenotypic variation among family means, determining potential of improvement via breeding, can be inflated by up to half, based on single site estimates for growth traits and double for quality traits. Backward selection based on results of several trials, in contrast to forward selection or utilization of single experiment results, could lead to improvement of branch traits close to the same as for growth traits (height and diameter). Single site narrow-sense heritability estimates for analyzed growth and quality traits are up to twice as large as across site estimates, indicating possibilities of serious bias in genetic gain estimates based on results from one test site. Testing at 4-5 sites for further breeding work is recommended.

Willows (Salix sp.) and reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinecea L.) (RCG) are fast growing perennial energy crop and potential cultures for recovering of cutaway peat lands. Cut away peat land soils are characterized by high acidity (pHKCl 2-3), high NH4**+1, and lack of P and K. Wood ash could be good liming agent and resource of potassium. Waste water sewage sludge (WWSS) compost is effective fertilizer and source of phosphorus. The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of application of WWSS compost and wood ash fertilizers of different doses on ingrown of willow cuttings and RCG in potted cultures. The wood ash addition of 10 g lE-1 and 20 g lE-1 to WWSS compost mix with peat from used query in proportions 1:1 and 4:1 were tested. The length of shoots and dry mass of shoots and roots were assessed to determine the effect of fertilization on growth of crops. Chemical analyses of growing media were performed to determine the content of main nutrient elements and pHKCl changes during season. The positive effect of fertilization on growth of crops was observed - an optimum dose for willows is (10 g lE-1) equivalent to 10 tDM haE-1 wood ash with mix of WWSS compost with peat. RCG produces more biomass in growing media containing largest doses of wood ash and WWSS compost premix. The willows produced bigger amount of biomass and accumulated more nutrients from growing media than RCG.

In forest harvesting process, a logging company and a forest landowner who have various goals concerning forest stands purchase value are involved. The logging company wants to maximize the profit on lower price, but forest landowner - to extract maximum income. Calculating the forest stands value prior to harvesting it is possible to achieve mutually acceptable price. This article describes question statement and primary research of prior calculated and harvested volume difference for further study of forest stands purchase value algorithm optimization. Harvested volume from feed-back data and prior calculated forest stands volume were compared to obtain the difference and understand the economical importance for optimization of harvesting sites maximal value calculation algorithm. For primary study, forest stands prior harvesting calculation model from the logging company was used. Results from prior harvesting calculations were compared with data after harvesting to achieve information about the precision of calculation model. Obtained results showed significant difference between prior calculated and harvested volumes, which in financial matter cause losses to the logging company. Compared to total harvested volume, negative cutting difference was 7% from volume, which in financial terms with annual harvesting of 1 million m**3 make loss of ~2.3 million euro.