Considering the deficiencies of social services for the elderly in governmental institutions and growing demand of ensuring services in rural areas, the paper aims to assess the needs of elderly people for social services in the selected rural areas and to propose the social services’ development opportunities in terms of domestic help for the elderly. The social services facilitate support to elderly dependents in their homes, without interrupting their relationships with the family and the community, and improving their quality of life. The survey has shown that the municipality usually satisfies only basic biological needs of old people in rural areas. In order to ensure the well-being of elderly people, a complete cooperation among governmental and non-governmental institutions is required. Development of the services should be focused on the provision of the domestic help services for elderly people who do not receive them, and the diversity of the services for those residents who receive services from the municipality. The implementation of the development project of the domestic help services would enable the elderly residents of the rural municipality to have access to the most necessary services at the required frequency and intensity, considering the recipients’ needs, thus improving the quality of life of the elderly people of local community and ensuring their dignified ageing.

The paper presents theoretical and practical aspects of content marketing decision application for rural tourism development using a case of a farmstead ʻĮlankos sodybaʼ. The first part of the article deals with theoretical insights into content marketing ability to stimulate rural tourism development. Results of literature review reveal that there are connections between elements of the content marketing and rural tourism development, which means that the use of content marketing can be economically valuable for the wider range of the farmsteads. The second part of the paper focuses on the case analysis of the farmstead ‘Įlankos sodybaʼ. In order to explore how the application of content marketing decisions can impact rural tourism development, an experiment of content marketing usage in search advertisement of selected farmstead was carried out. Separate content marketing elements were involved in search advertisement and changes of advertisement effect upon the customers were measured. The given results show that content marketing elements can improve the chosen advertisement effect upon the customers. This leads to presumption that the wider use of content marketing can improve not only the effect of separate marketing tool, but also can contribute to the development of rural tourism. The paper concludes with findings and discussion; limitations and future research possibilities are given as well.

The article is of a cognitive and application nature. The research objective is to distinguish harmonious management principles applicable to the management of public sector efficiency. Results of the article achieved: 1) The analysis was done of the management principles in social models, as well as between them and harmonious management and its exclusive features. Harmonious management in this article is treated as a continuation of the analysis of the public administration evolution. The extracted specific management principles of conduct can be used for a comparative analysis between the social management models. 2) The analysis was done of harmonious management directions, which may be applied to a public sector organization. 3) The article discusses the process of harmonization and presented stages. Harmonious management process logic diagram integrated exchange organizations into a cohesive process model and principles for promoting efficient activities. 4) The article presents the proposals and conclusions of different options and the need to apply the harmonious management of public sector management to gain efficiency. The aim of the research is to identify the principles of harmonious management applicable to public sector management for the purpose of effectiveness. The paper is based on the scientific literature and document analysis and synthesis, systematization, comparative analysis and case studies. In this article the case study is used by local authorities, which are represented by the public sector. Empirical research is conducted by using the quantitative standardized expert interview method. Visualization method is used, too.

The European Union livestock sector is a major player of the agricultural economy and its land use, and livestock is one of the fastest-growing sectors in agriculture, potentially presenting opportunities for economic growth and poverty reduction in rural areas. In Latvia, the year 2014 was quite difficult for the dairy industry both due to Russia’s embargo on dairy product import and low milk purchase prices and due to concerns that milk quotas had been exceeded. It is therefore important that cows are healthy and no additional losses are suffered from mastitis. Mastitis is a complex disease involving many factors, which is mainly caused by bacteria and there is no simple model that encompasses different possible aspects. Therefore, the research aim is to assess the effects of mastitis in cow herds for farms in Latvia. The research study proceeds in two stages or phases: firstly, to review the scientific literature on mastitis problems and solutions to the problems in other countries, secondly, to survey dairy farms of various sizes in the regions of Latvia in order to examine the real situation concerning mastitis and its effects on the economy of farms. A survey results of 74 farms in Latvia revealed that 90.5% of the farms had problems with mastitis. Consequently, if sick cattle are timely culled, it is possible to keep the herd milk yield without a significant drop. In case of cows with mastitis, farms suffer losses from smaller quantities of milk produced depending on farming intensity and due to cows culled with mastitis.

Energy transition from the fossil fuel dominating to the one based on renewable energy sources (RES) takes acceleration with the internationally recognised need to stabilise the global warming. Therefore, there is a general consensus that the initiative of the wide use of RES is manifold in its nature making an impact not only on the environmental issues, but also adding to the so desired customer involvement and rural development as well. Rural dimension in reaching the EU targets should arguably be a priority as RES utilisation is decentralised in its nature. Despite the fact that EU with its main strategic documents gives a clear direction on RES utilisation through wider involvement of citizens, especially in rural places, there are certain grounds for stating that a current situation and future insights among EU Member States still differ. Lithuanian case was chosen to explore the sustainability gaps regarding the RES utilisation development in rural places. Literature review is employed to choose the most suitable way aiming to explore and evaluate the RES utilisation development in rural places regarding the sustainability issues. This article adds to understanding and evaluating the main obstacles of the well balanced RES utilisation development in rural places.

The first independent career related decisions are made during the ninth grade of the elementary school when the further educational institution is selected. The concept of possible selves can be used in career education to help students increase self-awareness, explore and generate options, and formulate plans to achieve future goals. The aim of the article is to examine rural adolescents’ ability to generate career-related possible selves and plausible strategies to attain these possible selves. On the basis of the Possible Selves Theory, the open-ended measure was developed by the author. The pilot research was carried out in Latvia in January 2013. Forty six nine-graders from two rural elementary schools and two rural secondary schools participated in the research. Next year and adult possible selves generated by rural adolescents include such domains as education, employment, leisure activities, physical and personal development, as well as interpersonal relationships and lifestyle. The most important ones are domains of education and employment. Statistically significant differences of the results among the gender subgroups are not found in the research, statistically significant differences exist between the possible selves and their attaining strategies generated by rural secondary school students and rural elementary school students.

The demand for healthy and reasonably cheap food is growing and governments are expanding policies to preserve soil fertility and nature. In addition, climatic conditions are changing. Arable lands are decreasing. Due to all of these changes food growers are looking for new growing technologies. A monographic method to tackle these problems has been used in this article. Intercropping is one of growing systems how to reduce negative climatic aspects and meet other demands. Intercrop is convenient for growers who grow plants in rows, and a companion plant can be sown or planted between rows. In this case farmers can get two yields from one plot. Thus, growers do not need two plots for growing different plants. The intercrop diminishes spreading of pests and diseases, suppresses weed growth, and reduces need for pesticides. Legume (Leguminosae) intercrop gives extra nitrogen to companion plants. Those are aspects that we know intercrop can give, but we do not know how significant the influence is, what kind of influence on nature intercrops give in long term, what kind of influence they have on incomes, yield and its quality. This article shows that there are many intercropping systems to reduce some negative aspects and increase beneficial ones. Intercropping can reduce some pests and diseases, but promote other problems. Intercropping suppresses weeds. For some systems it gives bigger yield, for some smaller, but in total it gives bigger protein yield. There are still many unanswered questions and completely unexplained points.

The study consists of literature review on potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) initial seed material – minitubers production. This paper covers aspects of healthy potato microplants production techniques and subsequent greenhouse minitubers production methods. The diversity of conventional minituber growing techniques (on solid medium in greenhouses) is discussed. Review showed that obtained minitubers number depends on growing methods and variety. Physical manipulation during in vitro phase could have positive effects on minitubers yielding capacities.

Willow species are nowadays extensively studied. Species are being investigated to evaluate their use and role in various sectors of national economy. The use of willows in short rotation coppice (SRC) for biomass and energy production has a priority in the European Union policy. There are many countries that have grants and financial aid system for so-called ‘green energy’ production. Willow species also have other economically and ecologically important features: resistance to contaminants, strong root system, high tannin contents, decorative, etc. Willow SRC systems are used for phytoremediation and in wastewater purification, in combination with biomass production. There are several countries of Eastern Europe researching adequacy of the willow SRC for the farmland contaminated by radionuclides segregated from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster. Willows are used for quarry restoration, water sludge treatment, erosion control etc, but the most important field at the moment is the biomass production.

Electronic circulation of documents and electronic services have become the most significant IT development trend in the public sector. During the last few years public sector institutions in all Europe have significantly improved the quality of the provided services. With the evolving options offered by the internet and the digital signature getting more widely used, citizens expect a more up-to-date approach to communications from governmental institutions. Successful operation of electronic services would not be possible without a proper circulation of electronic documents on the national level. This article briefly inspects the history of the electronic service development and analyses the conditions of the development, deals with the experience of different countries with the implementation of e-services. Particular attention has been paid to Latvia, its current situation and historical analysis of e-services. A special part is dedicated to Agricultural Ministry of the Republic of Latvia which is most closely related to national rural development, projects of transition towards electronic document circulation and provision of electronic services.