Unemployment and labour market adjustments have featured prominently among the problems of transitional economies. However, the position of young people and their transition from school to work in these new market economies has been virtually ignored. This paper deals with long-term youth unemployment problems and their integration into the labour market as viewed by different authors. The authors consider that the youth long-term unemployment is a global problem. Also, there are analysed statistical data on youth long-term unemployment, and a forecast of the youth unemployment rate for the 1st quarter of 2014 is made. The weakening of the global recovery in the years 2012 and 2013 has aggravated the youth employment crisis when there were no free jobs with adequate requirements for people without education and professional skills. The current situation promotes the trend that was already evident before the economic crisis. Most of young people are now turning to available part-time jobs or choose to study only. The author considers that the youths who have access to different resources will find more stable jobs or make their own businesses after unemployment than those lacking such different kinds of support. In building the education and employment decisions in the transition from school to work, there is a strong evidence of the importance of youths making good initial career decisions and an enduring effect of academic achievement on labour market and education outcomes.

Tourism industry is becoming one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Considering its significance in the economy of many countries, the research in tourism is growing, as well. Achieving to develop tourism industry, tourist satisfaction becomes a considerable goal for many countries. In this article, rural tourism is taken into consideration. However, scientific research in the field of Lithuanian rural tourist satisfaction is still scarce. Therefore, the level of Lithuanian rural tourist satisfaction and the factors determining their satisfaction are being determined in current research aiming to elaborate Rural Tourist Satisfaction Index in Lithuanian framework. Research results highlighted that the determinants of Lithuanian rural tourist satisfaction are: ‘accommodation and catering’, ‘destination aesthetics’, ‘environmental preservation’, ‘destination marketing’ and ‘perceived value’. Rural tourists in Lithuania value the benefits of ‘green marketing’, amenities and the efforts of expanding the variety of activities; the emphasis of all these aspects is perceived as ‘destination marketing’. On the other hand, levels of activities in rural destinations, quality of accommodation and catering, and aesthetics in Lithuanian rural destinations are insufficient. Enhancing these aspects could result in higher satisfaction and loyalty levels of rural tourists, and that would contribute to the rural tourism development in Lithuania.

Land fragmentation is a problem for many post-communist countries. Different aspects of land fragmentation have been investigated by many researchers. However, there is little attention paid to the issues of internal fragmentation of agricultural parcels. In this study, internal fragmentation is understood as the following phenomenon: a parcel consists of different types of land plots or one land type (e.g. arable land) is split into separated plots. In this study the empirical test of internal fragmentation of arable land inside agricultural parcels has been made. The aim of the study was to examine the existence and extent of internal fragmentation of agricultural parcels. The digital map of boundaries of arable land parcels and data about land types (arable land, roads, etc.) from the Estonia National Topographic Database were the data sources of the study. The following characteristics were calculated in a GIS environment for agricultural parcels: compactness coefficient; number of pieces of arable land inside a parcel; Januszewski index for characterization of internal land fragmentation and the ratio (in percent) of arable land in a parcel. The results of the study show the existence of internal fragmentation of arable land inside agricultural parcels. Arable land is internally fragmented in about 30 percent of agricultural parcels. The area of the arable land plot inside parcels is 7.7 hectares if there is no internal fragmentation. In the case of internal fragmentation of the arable land, this area is 5.6 hectares respectively.

The implementation of land reform has influenced the formation of property structure. The main procedures of land reform activities are stated in Estonian legislation. However, the provisions for determining the area and the boundaries for properties to be formed in the course of land reform are stated in legal acts in an unsystematic way. The aim of this study is to systematize the parcel area and the boundaries determination procedures that are used in the course of land reform for property formation. The examination of the relationships among different property formation procedures are part of this study. The methodology of the study was a systematic analysis of the property formation procedures provided by the Estonian Land Reform Act. The results of the study show that property formation during the course of land reform can be easy and simple in some cases. In other cases, property formation may be complicated. The determination of the area and boundaries of parcels to be formed is often an issue of discretion in such cases. The results of the study support the basis for better understanding land reform outcomes. It gives some explanation of the land fragmentation that is one of the outcomes of land reform. The results of the study also serve as a basis for future studies of land reform issues.

The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of fruits maturity stages at harvest on chemical composition, in vitro digestibility and in sacco degradability of Ficus surfruits (FSF). The treatments involved different maturity stages of Ficus sur fruits . Color, moisture content, and texture were used to distinguish among the fruit maturity stages. Fruits at early, mid, and late stages of maturity were collected from five trees and analyzed. The proximate composition of the fruits varied only slightly (0 to 3%) with the progress in maturity of the fruits. The exception was the DM content which increased from 45 to 87% with increasing maturity. The condensed tannins were low (<2%) for all the stages of maturity. In vitro and in sacco measurements indicated that the fruits at all stages of maturity were theoretically only slightly inferior to cereal grains as sources of digestible energy. However, the high washing loss in the in sacco study (38 to 42%) indicates that much of the digestible carbohydrate was in the form of soluble sugars which, depending on the levels used in the diet, could compromise the realizable net energy value of the diet. As in cereal grains, the crude protein content was relatively low (7.07 to 7.33% in DM).

Dairy cow production is an important livestock activity in the highlands of Madagascar and specifically in the Vakinankaratra region. Despite the increase of global milk production over the last decades, cow productivity remains low due to both quantity and quality feed constraints. Elephant grass and Italian ryegrass are the most cultivated forage grass, during the wet and warm season and the dry and cool season, respectively. An experiment under field conditions was carried out to evaluate the ability of the satellite-derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) to develop a tool for estimating biomass yields of Elephant grass and Italian ryegrass. Results showed moderate to strong but significant relationship between plant height and biomass yield (R² = 0.64 to 0.92), between NDVI and biomass yield (R² = 0.52 to 0.73) and between NDVI and plant height (R² = 0.61 to 0.74) of Elephant grass and Italian ryegrass, respectively. These results suggest that NDVI has potential to provide a tool for dynamic monitoring and management of pastureland forage production. (Résumé d'auteur)

L'état des parcours steppiques de la région de M'Sila traverse de profondes évolutions que nous avons étudiées en nous intéressant à la caractérisation et la forte transition des systèmes d'élevage moutonniers de cette région. Nous avons mené des entretiens auprès de 30 éleveurs, répartis sur 11 zones potentiellement pastorales de la steppe algérienne (pluviométrie entre 100 et 400 mm/an) autour de M'Sila. Les systèmes d'exploitation des parcours sont le système pastoral (13,3%), en régression, et le système agro-pastoral (86,7%) qui augmente avec les défrichements. Les déplacements pour l'été en mauvaise année peuvent être importants. Tous les éleveurs ont recours à une complémentation alimentaire, économiquement rentable. Cette situation induit une rapide dégradation des sols qui se traduit par une désertification du milieu (64,5 % des sols sont très dégradés pour seulement 17,6% corrects). Par ailleurs, les cheptels continuent à augmenter. En conséquence, les pâturages (parcours naturels et vaine pâture) se trouvent chroniquement en état de surcharge, parfois toute l'année. Devant cette situation préoccupante, de nouvelles stratégies à envisager devraient s'appuyer à la fois sur des réhabilitations (régénération naturelle ou plantation pastorale) et sur des systèmes alternatifs d'associations élevage – agriculture (avec les périmètres agricoles). (Résumé d'auteur)

peer reviewed | For the first time, the status of cavy culture in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is reviewed with emphasis on Sud-Kivu province. Cavy culture, as discussed in this paper, is the raising, production and utilization of the domestic cavy (i.e., Guinea pig, Cavia porcellus) for consumption. Many sources were used in the review, but published scientific research literature is extremely scarce. Nevertheless, it can be estimated that more than 2 million cavies are kept in DRC, contributing significantly to nutrition security, especially animal protein, and income generation of some hundreds of thousands of poor rural and urban households. The largest cavy populations are in the Kivu provinces, which is probably partly due to the inclusion of cavies in ‘rehabilitation kits’ of humanitarian NGOs and in the agricultural portfolio of development agencies who seek to address the challenges of widespread hunger and malnutrition in the area. The review covers the history of cavy culture in Sud-Kivu since colonial times based on oral tradition; it describes the current ‘cavy status’ in the country and identifies research and capacity building needs. We suggest that cavy culture in DRC is likely to become more widespread and important due to the activities of a new project on ‘Harnessing husbandry of domestic cavy for alternative and rapid access to food and income in Cameroon and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo’. Given the dimension, cavies should be included in livestock census as well as research and development agenda, honoring their role in the livelihoods of less endowed people, especially women.