The objectives of this study were to: (a) estimate milk and beef yields obtained from cows grazing pastures in different stages of degradation; (b) estimate income losses as a result of the degradation process; (c) estimate the proportion of pasture areas found in each stage of degradation within the six administrative regions of Honduras; and (d) identify different strategies and costs to recuperate degraded pastures. Data came from two surveys executed during a workshop carried out in March 2004. The subjective perceptions of 25 livestock producers and 8 extension agents of the 6 administrative regions of Honduras were obtained to estimate the losses of animal productivity within the farm, region, and country. A 4-level scoring of pasture degradation was defined -- where 1 was for the best condition (i.e., non-apparent degradation) and 4 was for the worst (i.e., severe degradation). Regressions, explaining the animal productivity losses at each level of pasture degradation, were generated according to the subjective and descriptive information. Comparing the perception of degraded areas, producers considered that in Honduras the extent of pasture degradation is lower compared with extension agents. According to producers, 29% of the pasture area in the country is at Level 1 (i.e., no degradation) compared with only 19% of extension agents. Moreover, producers perceived a lower proportion of pastures in severe degradation (i.e., Level 4, 27%) in comparison with almost 31% perceived by extension agents. In the intermediate degradation levels (i.e., Levels 2 and 3), both groups were similar. The country is forgoing milk and beef production due to the process of pasture degradation. According to estimations from producers, Honduras is loosing 284,106 tonnes of fluid milk and 48,271 tonnes of beef (live weight) annually for having pasture areas in Level 4 (i.e., severe degradation), equivalent to 48% of the annual production of milk and to 37% of beef. In economic terms, these losses in milk and beef yields are worth US$63 and US$48 million annually, respectively. The perception of extension agents is even more alarming. Honduras could produce 66% more milk and 50% more beef annually if livestock producers renovated their pastures before they reached level 4, equivalent to US$94 million in less revenues from milk sales and US$66 million from less beef sales. Both groups perceive that pastures, in an early stage of degradation (i.e., Level 2), are more economical, practical and rapid to recuperate. Also, as the process of degradation advances (i.e., to Levels 3 and 4), both cost and time of recuperating such pastures increase significantly. According to producers, the recuperation of a pasture from Level 4 to Level 1 costs $140/ha and takes almost a half year (i.e., 5.6 months). Extension agents estimate this cost of recuperation 27% higher ($178/ha) with 5% more time (i.e., 5.9 months). Producers perceive that grasses spend proportionately less time in going from Level 1 to 2 (i.e., 2.9 years) and as the process of degradation continues, pastures remain longer at advanced degraded levels (i.e., 3.1 years in going from level 2 to 3, and around 4.0 years in going from level 3 to 4). Moreover, producers think that the average productive life of improved grasses is about 10 years, while extension agents think that grasses degrade faster, with an average productive life of 8.4 years, 16% less than producers. According to producers and extension agents, pastures degrade at an annual rate of 10% and 12%, respectively. With these rates, Honduras would maintain its current level of degradation between levels 2.48 and 2.65. However, the renovation of pastures at an annual rate of 10-12% does not solve the problem, but maintains it. Producers argued that the current financial situation does not allow the necessary cash flow to renovate their plots, and the option of credit is not viable since real interest rates are high (ie., 10%). After simulating this scenario, it was demonstrated that farmers are able to generate the additional income necessary to pay a credit, but only if this credit is taken with interest rates similar to those found in the international market (ie., 3%). In order to eliminate the degraded areas found in Level 4 at the country level, it is necessary a one-time investment of $57 million according to producers and $84 million according to extension agents. The benefit obtained from this investment would result in a daily increase of 156,000 liters of milk and 26,500 kilograms of beef, equivalent to $22 millions/yr. Therefore, there are significant economic and productive incentives for the private and public sectors to develop and execute a plan of action to recuperate pasturelands in advanced stages of degradation.

This article represents the results of the research project 'Forest energy from small-dimension stands, infra-structure objects and stumps' realized in cooperation between Joint stock company Latvijas valsts meži (Latvia's state forests), SKOGFORSK (The Forestry Research Institute of Sweden) and Latvian State Forestry Research Institute Silava. The article is covering issues related to the results of stump harvesting field study realized in November, 2008. A scope of the study was to estimate costs of stump harvesting and to evaluate working methods and influencing factors related to extraction of stumps. Better harvesting conditions (flat landscape and lack of stones in soil) led to increased productivity of stump extraction in Latvian trials (5.2 tdry (tdry - tons of dry mass) of stumps per effective hour (E0-h)) in comparison to average figures in Scandinavian studies. Load sizes of the forwarder ranged from 5.5 to 9.3 t which is about half of the maximum load of forwarder. Average productivity of forwarding was 6.3 tdry E0-hE-1. Productivity of stump transport (distance - 7 km) was 3.5 tdry E0-hE-1. Productivity of comminution was 10 tdry E0-hE-1. Prime cost of the stump harvesting, including extraction, forwarding, stump transport (7 km one direction), comminution and chip transport (50 km one direction) was 6.3 LVL LVmE-3 (LV - loose volume). 'Environmental footprint' of the stump harvesting in terms of carbon (C) emissions was 2.5 kg C LVmE-3 of wood chips at terminal. Stumps demonstrated considerably higher heat value (5.7 MWh tdryE-1 against 4.7 MWh tdryE-1 for the hog fuel from a slash).

This article is covering results of pre-commercial thinning, forest infrastructure and undergrowth harvesting field studies implemented in July, 2007 by Skogforsk and LSFRI Silava. A scope of the study was to estimate prime costs of biofuel production from small trees and to compare two types of harvester heads (Bracke C16.a and Ponsse EH25). The productivity in pre-commercial thinning expressed as trees per E0-h (effective hour) ranged between 53 (Ponsse) and 118 (Bracke) in the pine stand and 150 (Bracke) in the mixed spruce stand. In comparison the LVm3 (LV - loose volume) ranged between 9.9 (Ponsse) and 14.1 (Bracke) in the pine stand and was 13.0 (Bracke) in the mixed spruce stand. In the forest infrastructure (roadside ditches) harvesting productivity was 8.2 LVm3 E0-hE-1 for Ponsse and 12.5 LVm3 E0-hE-1 for Bracke. Productivity was economically insufficient in undergrowth removal, both in harvesting (Bracke) and forwarding (Ponsse) operations, respectively 1.1 and 2.6 LVm3 E0-hE-1. Prime costs of harvesting, forwarding, comminution and chip transport (50 km one direction) in pre-commercial thinning in calculation to LVL LVm-3 were 5.93 for Ponsse and 5.85 for Bracke. Prime costs in forest infrastructure in LVL LVmE-3 were 4.97 (Ponsse) and 6.36 (Bracke). Only Bracke was tested in the undergrowth, where prime costs were 37.55 LVL LVm-3. 'Environmental footprint' of biofuel production from small trees in terms of carbon (C) emissions ranged from 2.6 to 10.2 kg CLVmE-3, including road transport (50 km) to terminal.

The purpose of this article is to establish the social and/or economic impact of the implemented Cohesion Fund (CF) projects on development of regions of Latvia. Three tasks are addressed to achieve this goal - to study CF projects by regions; analyse distribution of funding by sectors of economy and their compliance with CF objectives; to draft recommendations for improving the absorption of funds and achieving the goals of the European Union (EU) regional policy. The article consists of three chapters, an introduction and conclusions. New scientifically grounded recommendations are developed for improving socio-economic impact of the CF in Latvia. The key recommendation relates to the EU involvement in dealing with problems of increase in costs, namely - by proving that the increase in costs affects several of the new EU member states or Community regions, the EC will have to take part in addressing the problem. Further assessment of the socio-economic impact of the CF on development of regions of Latvia requires additional research.

Business activity of an enterprise is almost inconceivable without planning. Therefore today there are many discussions about the importance of activity planning of the enterprise and forecasting of the resources, necessary to reach the set tasks. For this reason the scientists and practicians offer to implement the budgeting system in the enterprises. This paper introduces the new budgeting model - Activity-Based Budgeting (ABB) model. It also contains the survey of advantages of this model and its applicability in theoretical aspect. The key objective of this paper is to present Activity-Based Budgeting (ABB) as an important means of planning and coordination of activity of the agricultural enterprise (or any other type of an enterprise). After performance of analysis of the main principles of Activity-Based Budgeting (ABB) model the reasoned conclusions can be drawn that application of this model in the agricultural enterprises could be the alternative means against the variable and changing economical and business conditions. It should be emphasized that contrarily to the traditional budgeting models; ABB can help to establish the connections between the incurred costs and the company processes. The paper contains ABB analysis based upon the scientific studies and the fragments of practical application of the model.

It has been shown in previous studies that transaction costs (TC) of agri-environmental policy measures often are very large both in absolute terms and as a share of payments. As agri-environmental policy measures make up an increasingly large share of agricultural policies, not least within the European Union, it is becoming ever more important to improve the knowledge about the factors determining the level of transaction costs. This paper investigates the TC determinants of one Swedish agri-environmental policy measure. More specifically, it aims to investigate if the level of TC is attributable to economic factors, such as pasture density and distances, or if political factors, such as lobby groups and political majorities at the county level, influence the costs. To evaluate if the results are robust with respect to alterations in model specifications, a version of the extreme bounds analysis is applied. Although initial results indicate that political parties influence the level of transaction costs, the extreme bounds analysis reveals that those results are fragile. It shows that five of the economic variables are robust with respect to model specifications, but none of the political variables is.

Rising oil prices, national security concerns, the desire to increase farm incomes, and a host of new and improved technologies are propelling the European Union to set the directive for the year 2010 – each member state should achieve at least 5.75% biofuel usage of all used transport fuel. The report on the progress made in the use of renewable fuels shows that the average Member State of the EU has achieved only 52% of its target, and biofuels’ share in 2010 will not raise much above 4%. The prices of different biofuels are still not able to compete with oil based fuel prices. One of the possible ways how to solve this problem is to optimize biofuel supply chains using different methods of systems engineering. The aims of this investigation were finding out appropriate simulation tools for biofuel supply chain modelling, development of rapeseed oil supply chains for different production types, and modelling the developed supply chains. As the result of software survey, two packages were chosen – AnyLogic and ExtendSim Suite. Modelling studies showed that rapeseed oil supply chain is very sensitive, because changing just single parameters in a short scale, the actual cost price of 1 litre of oil changes considerably. Comparing the fossil diesel fuel prices with rape oil actual cost from modelling studies, the use of oil as a fuel for farm machinery seems to be profitable. Analysis of costs distribution shows that the greatest part is composed by rapeseed growing expenses.

The study was accomplished in 2010. The applied research methods are based on the analysis of the studies by other authors, industry experts, statistic data and the (unpublished) information provided by the Latvian district heating merchant “xxx”. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was used for evaluating data regularity. In 2020 the energy produced from renewable sources (Directive 2009/28/EC) in total energy consumption in Latvia has to reach 40%. Such an objective can be achieved by promoting the use of biomass at cogeneration (CHP) plants, the potential of which is the district heat supply system. Wood as an energy resource in its structure accounts for only 25-30%; therefore, the primary condition is the introduction of modern technology which would provide the possibility to diversify energy resources. The calculations confirm that the realised amount of thermal energy indirectly affects profit; directly it is affected by the rate of thermal energy, so the structure of use of energy in heat supply enterprises is associated with lowering the cost of (restrictive) factors - the energy cost, specific production technologies, energy efficiency. Currently, the primary condition of heating companies is to find such energy resource(s) to ensure the approved schedule of temperature and thermal load. The next determining factor is the energy price. In assessing the factors that will affect energy usage in the future, the main strategic principle of energy consumption will be linked to limiting the growth or even reducing heat tariff, by realising optimal efficiency and minimal environmental pollution during energy transmission.

Appropriate discount rate for forestry is still an issue for the forest economy. Therefore, it is significant to understand the importance of discounting, and how costs of forestry production process are valued. Forest regeneration and new stands tending costs are considered as investments; they are related to each particular stand. For that reason, the goal of this study was to compare how the value of this investment is growing at the bank deposit or 1 ha forest stand. The study examined the growth rate of two different tree species value with young forest stand establishment and tending investments depositing in the bank or the growth rate of compound interests. As discounting formula derived from a compounding formula, it would allow to find an appropriate discount rate for each timber species. High rates of compound interest cause a very rapid and unrealistic future value increase, while low rates cause slow value increase for a very long period represented by a common forest rotation; for that reason high discount rates used in forestry are not rational. Taking into account an income from intermediate cuttings, the value of timber species in comparison with the deposit significantly improves. Suitable discount rate determination in forest assessment is mainly determined by the species of wood productivity and cutting age. As it is hard to find two identical forest properties, each situation should be considered individually, taking into account and understanding the relationship between a growth rate of timber and compound interests, thus choosing an appropriate discount rate.

The production of innovative composition (high omega group fatty acids and antioxidants-carotenoids) broiler chicken meat and egg opportunities in Latvia was assessed. After feeding the poultry with feed enriched with fatty acids and antioxidants, broiler meat and eggs of innovative composition containing a higher amount of omega-3 (in meat by 1.7%, in eggs by 2.7%), omega-6 (in meat by 3.9%, in eggs by 3.2%) and carotenoids (0.44 mg kg-1 in meat and in eggs by 6.9 mg kg-1) when compared with the content of commercial products are obtained. Nutrition costs of innovative composition-based broiler chicken meat production are LVL 20 higher and nutrition costs of egg production are LVL 1.49 higher per 1000 units of output than in the standard version of the poultry feeding-stuff. The poultry farming production of an innovative composition, however, is economically profitable due to the higher rates of poultry productivity. In the case of an innovative composition-based yield the potential profit at the currently equal cost realisation of poultry meat and eggs is higher when calculating 293.47 LVL per 1000 broiler chickens and 5.52 LVL per 1000 eggs in comparison with commercial production.